


It's An Effort

by qookyquiche



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family, Marriage, domestic life, married au, they get a pet cat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-09-20 22:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 24,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9518165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qookyquiche/pseuds/qookyquiche
Summary: In the far future for our two Miraculous heroes, Hawkmoth has been defeated, they're happily married and are getting used to the domestic life together. It doesn't seem to be a huge struggle considering their ten-year-old partnership.Or is it?(A collection of drabbles and oneshots that are not necessarily in chronological order. Think of it more of as an exploration of marriage)





	1. Dawn Breaks

**Author's Note:**

> I don't consider myself a writer, mostly because I rarely ever do it (in fact I only started writing slightly more frequently in 2016. Before that, nada.). But I decided to put these drabbles here because I do want to continue exploring their relationship but in a marriage setting this time.
> 
> Some of these are cross-posted from Tumblr (first two were originally from my tumblr).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting things off with a bit of Tikki and Plagg! What do they think of their chosen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t feel like drawing today but my creativity showed itself in a different form

"It’s still dark out, you know.”

The black cat glances behind him to see a little red spark floating next to his ear.

“You should be with the kid,” he mutters.

She settles beside him on the window sill, quiet eyes trained on the glass in front of them. Outside, the tranquil streets are empty save for a few stragglers and the occasional passing car. The moon is low, soon to make way for the morning sun.

“She’s sound asleep.” Tikki assures him. “What about you? You’ve been up all night.”

“I’m a black cat full of bad luck powers. I _am_ the night,” Plagg winks at her deadpan look before turning back to the window.

Silence befalls them as they watch the light clouds hover over Paris. Soon, Tikki begins to hum, a tune-less sound which, as Plagg knows, can calm even the fiercest of warriors. To him, it’s happiness. To him, it’s the harmony when he begins to purr. He feels himself relax before finally breaking the air again.

“Can you believe it’s been twelve years, Tikki?”

The red kwami turns to see the corner of his mouth shift upward so slightly, but his eyes are trained on the setting moon. She swears she’d seen them sparkle for a quick second.

“Since what?” Tikki asks.

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he lifts his paw across her back to the closed door at the far end of the room in silence. Yet she knows fully what he means. Inside, their charges sleep, wrapped up in each other’s embrace. When Tikki looks at the pointed direction, her smile widens with adoration and affection.

“Yeah,” she breathes out.

“It’s funny because, we’ve been with other holders for much longer than this and yet for some reason, I’ve always thought they were special.” Plagg takes a deep breath. “Like, when I first met Adrien, immediately, I could feel something.”

“What do you mean?”

“This may sound a bit crazy, but I think they’re just like us.” Tikki notes she’s rarely seen Plagg this sheepish. Quirking an eyebrow, she looks at him questioningly. 

“Like us?” She asks. “How?”

“Do you remember that day?” Plagg starts. “When our charges met for the first time?”

Tikki chuckles. “As which identities?”

“Um, at school-when she got mad at him.” the black kwami clarifies. Outside, the sun is beginning to peek from over the horizon.

“At the time, I didn’t know you were with that girl when he was trying to remove gum of her seat. I knew you were close, but as soon as I heard them make contact, verbally if nothing else, it was like…an electric current.”

When he turns to her, Tikki’s eyes are narrowed towards him.

“Are you sure that wasn’t just me you felt?” she asks warily.

Plagg shakes his head. “I would’ve known if it was you immediately. You’re quite easy to read.”

Tikki huffs.

“I actually did sense you. But this,” he gestures at nothing. “This was different. I know it was the girl who triggered it. I’d never felt anything like it before, even with our past holders.”

“So you’re only bringing this up now?”

“Well, at first, I was going to say something, but your presence was strongest around the girl, so I fully assumed you were with her. Figured it had just made things more convenient. Plus every time those two would talk outside the suits, I’d feel your aura all the time.”

Plagg cackles. “I even teased him about having a girlfriend after they made up that rainy day! I was quite serious even if it didn’t seem like it. Shame we had to keep all this a secret until they told each other.”

He pauses.

“To be honest,” he sighs. “I’d completely forgotten about this…until that little kitten popped up and I felt it again.”

Tikki turns back to the window, which had since then been bathed with the cool colors of dawn. She hums in thought before looking at him again.

“First of all, they’re called children, not kittens, Plagg. But… I think I know what you’re talking about.”

It’s the black kwami’s turn to look at her.

“I guess you were more sensitive to it than I was, but now I do remember that feeling. Like a strong tingle down my antennae. Definitely not from you. I thought it was just the air to be honest…or the akuma, but I guess it was something much more significant.”

“Wow, and I thought you were the all-powerful Tikki of good luck,” Plagg teases with a grin.

“I had other concerns at that time,” she shrugs. “Anyway, so, you said they were like us. How?”

Plagg pauses for a moment in thought. His ears pick up the soft cries of the child in the room, nestled in a crib next to her parents.

“Like two halves of a whole,” he finally answers her. “As if they were made for each other…Like they were-“

Tikki rests her head on his.

“…Soulmates,” she finishes as she begins to hum.

\--

Beyond the door, a father’s voice soothes his crying child.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was fun :3 I’ve never written anything for Tikki and Plagg before (nor do I draw them often), so I was surprised when I started off with that first line and it went straight to their perspective from there. Call this an exploratory drabble (since I rarely write fics anyway).
> 
> I’m leaving whatever that tingling sensation was as a mystery. Maybe if I have time (or remember it), I’ll try to work that out but, it’s not too important tbh.


	2. Autumn Friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien has a bad day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few days later and you have yet another oneshot from yours truly. It’s a lot longer and I honestly struggled just a tad with this. This serves as a companion piece to this =>https://qookyquiche.tumblr.com/post/156356255415/self-indulgent-married-au-bed-cuddles

There are times he regrets being Chat Noir. Most of those times, it’s because of the side effects.

With fifty stained papers to grade, a snooty new assistant, and coffee on his favorite tie, Adrien figures today would secure a spot in his Top Ten Worst Days of Bad Luck. Plagg howls in laughter at his little comment before demanding his daily cheese. Adrien hands the kwami a block before sliding his key into their apartment door, opening it.

Inside, it is quiet. Adrien drops his bag on their coffee table and spreads out the papers he needs to mark, which have since dried to wrinkles. He rubs the bridge of his nose. At least it’s the weekend, he muses.

Outside, the warm colors of sunset slowly fade to make way for night. Adrien busies himself in the kitchen, bringing out the red wine, cutting the meat for his _beef bourguignon_. Plagg slowly sets the table, placing a roll of bread on the center and a couple of wine glasses.

His actions had been a recent and welcomed change from the otherwise lazy kwami. Adrien wonders if Tikki had a hand in his…transformation. Yet, whenever he asks or teases him about it, Plagg would simply ignore the question.

His wife isn’t home yet, Adrien notes, but he supposes that as the bringer of good luck, she’d have a much more fortunate day.

“Hey, Plagg,” he calls out from the kitchen. “Do you want some Camembert di-?”

His words grind to a halt when the door slams open, revealing a glowering woman. To his horror, her short hair is matted with fallen leaves, her boots caked with a bit of mud, and she’s panting for breath. Quickly setting the cooking wine down, he rushes over to her.

“Mari! Are you ok?” he cries, placing a hand light on her back as she inhales.

Tikki pops up from behind her and looks at him apologetically before zooming over to help Plagg. When Adrien looks back, his wife is glaring at him, and he sees dirt peppering her cheeks.

“Do I _look_  ok?” she snaps at him. His hand instinctively removes itself from her person, but he sees her eyes become sullen as she releases her breath.

“…sorry.”

“What happened?” Adrien asks, hovering his hand over her shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it,” she mutters. “I’ll tell you during dinner. After I take a nice, long bath.”

“Alright.”

Adrien rubs her back comfortingly, before taking her handbag, miraculously unscathed, and guiding her inside their home. He trails behind her as they head for their bedroom and he places the bag on top of her dresser. As he turns for the kitchen, he hears the bathroom door shut.

The sound of glass breaking snaps his attention back.

“PLAGG!”

“Oops.”

\--

He puts down his spoon with a huff.

“Well,” He sighs as he takes a sip from his glass.  “It’s good thing I finished up the cooking wine before that cat knocked the bottle over. We’ll have to get a new one.”

Across him, Marinette is making slow work of her stew. He notices a lack of the usual gleam in her blue eyes. They’d started dinner in complete silence.

“So, Bugaboo, how was your day?” he finally asks.

Marinette takes a deep breath before gulping down  the rest of her wine.

“Terrible,” she finally admits. “I don’t know what was going on today, but as I was heading home, as Ladybug, I missed my landing and ended up in a mud puddle. Then, when I tried to get back up, I slipped, and landed on a pile of leaves!”

Adrien lets out an unnoticeable chuckle.

“That’s not all! A bunch of little punk kids saw me! ‘Oh look, Ladybug fell in the mud.’ ’Maybe she’s not all good luck after all.’ ‘She’s way past her game!’” 

Marinette sticks her tongue out in mockery. He gives her a sympathetic look.

“I wanted to lasso those kids,” she pouts. “Clearly their parents never taught them to respect their elders…or superheroes.”

“And before that,” she continues. “I had to deal with this bratty woman who expected to have her dress done in two hours. TWO HOURS!” she raises her two fingers for added emphasis, eyes wide with fury. “Of course, I told her that wasn’t possible since she had JUST commissioned me that morning. Needless to say, I ended up losing a potential client.”

She inhales.

“Honestly, I could go on, but…I’m tired.” 

Deflating, Marinette slouches against her chair, falling quiet again. Adrien reaches out to lay a hand on top of hers, rubbing circles on her skin with his thumb. Her ring is cool against his palm.

“Hey,” he begins. “Don’t worry. You’re not the only one who’s had a bad day.”

Her eyes glance at him.

“Yeah! I ended up spilling coffee all over my desk. It got to my students’ papers AND my favorite tie. Plus, there is this new assistant who came in today. She’s _supposed_ to be helping me grade those papers but no! Instead, she tells me she’ll check them _after_ I check them, but then she disappears right before the day ends. Sometimes she’d even tried to hit on me, despite this guy-” He raises his left hand to show the matching ring. “-being taken.”

Marinette giggles softly. “Do I have to worry about my husband’s faithfulness?” she teases him.

Adrien lays his raised hand to his chest. “My Lady! After ten years, you doubt this cat’s loyalty to his bug? I’m hurt!”  He puts on a Cheshire grin, which Marinette returns with a chuckle.

The couple falls into a quiet fit of laughter before Marinette lets out a wide yawn. Her plate is only half-finished but she pushes it away.

“Sorry, Adrien,” she tells him. “Your cooking is amazing, but-“

“You’re exhausted,” he finishes for her. Marinette nods.

“That’s ok, love. You could use an early bedtime,”

Adrien begins to stand. “Why don’t you head on to bed?” he suggests. “I’ll follow after I’m done cleaning up.”

As he begins taking the plates and empty glasses, Marinette’s hand reaches out to clamp on his wrist.

“Hurry?” she pleads with her eyes.

Adrien smiles at his lovely, tired wife before bending down to lay a kiss on her cheek.

“Ok.”

\--

Almost an hour later, with the pots, pans, and plates all tucked back into their proper cubbies and glassware hung on their rack, Adrien heads for the bedroom. The broken glass has since been cleaned up, the dining table wiped down, and the leftovers put into the fridge. Plagg and Tikki are lounging on their couch, the cat kwami neatly finishing off the last of the Camembert dip. They bid each other goodnight before Adrien turns off all but one of the lights.

When he shuts the bedroom door behind him, he sees her head peeking from underneath the covers, still and serene except for a slight shudder in her breath. He hopes it’s nothing too serious as he dresses down to his black undershirt and shorts.

“Adrien?” he hears her murmur.

He walks to his side of the bed before settling himself down to look at her.

“Took you long enough,” she whispers just enough to hear.

“Sorry about that, My Lady. Turns out, Camembert doesn’t scrub off well.” he jokes.

Marinette, her eyes still closed, just smiles. She bids for him, lifting an arm from underneath the cover.

With that, Adrien settles himself into her arms. He peppers soft kisses to her neck and jawline, earning content hums from the woman underneath him. She pulls him tighter before he halts his ministrations and simply lays there, arm around her waist, head fit snuggly into the crook of her neck.

“Good night, my love.”

They fall asleep at the same time.

\--

When Tikki peeks in, she sees the two lovers wrapped up in each other’s arms. Silently, she pulls the crumpled duvet up and covers their chosen underneath the unneeded protection of its warmth.

She zips out again, ready to turn off the last light before a thought enters her mind.

“Plagg, those two had really rough days today. Did you have anything to do with this?” she asks.

The black kwami grunts up at her, Camembert dip all gone. “Well yeah, as usual,” he replies. “But, Tikki, I thought you’d know by now.”

Tikki eyes him curiously.

“It’s Friday the 13th, remember?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just realized this is the first time I’ve ever written those two actually in full physical contact with each other so that was a hurdle to jump.
> 
> I dunno, I’m leaving just how Friday the 13th affects them up to interpretation since I wrote this in under five hours. I didn’t feel like drawing today xD


	3. Love is Patient

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first of a series of short drabbles I plan on writing :D 
> 
> Enjoy! This one is REALLY short. It was originally a lot longer before I got frustrated and scrapped the whole thing and made this instead :)

He hates a mess. 

She thrives in it. 

“Can you please use a coaster?”

“Hold on a sec, let me sew this.”

He puts one under her cup.

She ignores it. 

He sits next to her.

She ignores him.

He pokes her with a finger.

She pokes him with a needle.

“I’m so sorry!”

“It’s alright!”

She puts her fabric down.

He puts his hand on hers.

“You’re bleeding.”

“It’s nothing.”

“I could’ve gotten that coaster, you know.”

“And you know I love you.”

“…”

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this to be intentionally choppy and with the headcanon that Adrien likes things in order (at least generally). I mean, he grew up in a rich home and they'd probably trained him to use coasters, right? xD


	4. Love is Kind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to update in less than 24 hours because I'd already written this beforehand.

He realizes one day as he lays down beside her that, even as young teenagers, he had loved her.

No, it wasn’t that kind of love at the time, not like the feelings that stirred in him, aiming for a spotted heroine.

It was a subtle love, one that would flutter between them like snowflakes in winter. A love that, if one does not pay attention, would seem insignificant.

But as blossoms blooms in spring, so did his love for her grow warm and delicate. At first it was the little things: a hand on the shoulder, passing touches on skin, a wink of confidence in his eyes.

Soon, it would become like the summer sun, strong and ever-present. He saw who she was, both in and out of her suit and suddenly the tendrils of heat had woven both his loves together into something he could never have possibly imagined.

In a flash of white and a blanket of darkness, that sun became a supernova as they finally bared themselves to each other completely, bound forever under the protection of stars.

\-----

It is autumn when she realizes he had loved her in their youth.

It wasn’t the love disguised under sleek black and bravado.

No, it was love in the form of an umbrella.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this late at night. It got real sappy xD
> 
> This is part of an ongoing drabble series I've started: what is love?


	5. It Does Not Envy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was saving this for when I had more than one chapter completed. The next one after this is almost done :)

When she looks across the street, she sees them. They’re sitting on a park bench with a child bouncing on the woman’s lap. The couple take turns blowing bubbles from a can so that the child may grab at it, ultimately in vain.

Yet, the child’s failures bring smiles to his face. The laughter is infectious and Marinette can't help but smile in return when the child catches a glimpse of her while the parents aren't looking. She waves, imagining a peaceful scene like that, a child on her lap and her husband leaning against her. She lets out a breath as the pedestrian light turns green.

But she doesn’t need to cross.

\----

When she arrives home, Tikki zips out from her purse to join Plagg in their makeshift alcove next to their bedroom. She sees her husband sitting on their couch, a stack of papers on the coffee table in front of him. Tapping his pen on his chin, he quickly writes something on the bottom of the sheet in red.

Quietly, Marinette sets her bag on the armchair to his far left before she settles herself next to him. Without a word, she leans her temple against his hunched shoulder and inhales before wrapping her arms around him.

“You ok, Bugaboo?” he asks, before placing a peck on the top of her head without taking his eyes off the paper. 

“I’m fine, honey. Just…happy, actually.”

“Oh?”

“I saw that couple again on the way home.”

“The one with the kid and the bubbles?” He scribbles another note on a paper.

“Yeah…”

“…And…?” He finally looks at her and eyes her questioningly.

Without looking into his face, she hugs him tighter and nuzzles his arm as he finally puts his pen down.

“I’m glad you’re here," she whispers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BEFORE ANYONE CRIES OUT "THEY CAN'T MAKE BABIES?!", THE ANSWER IS "THEY CAN."
> 
> *breathes*
> 
> In my AU, there's a lot of uncertainty, mostly from Adrien, about having a child while they're still active as superheroes. But eventually they will have at least one.
> 
> I'll be honest. The next few prompts are proving to be quite difficult to write due the source material I'm basing these drabbles from. I'm attempting to apply each section into everyday situations but the next few prompts were written to be deliberately against human nature and would need a lot more thought than the others to write about. 
> 
> On that note, I've attempted to leave Mari's feelings rather ambiguous, and for you guys to interpret for yourselves :)
> 
> I thank @geek-fashionista/PrincessKitty1 for helping me with the next one.


	6. It Does Not Boast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gosh, here, have this already.  
> I'm sorry, it's a mess.

_"Chaton,_ I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Relax, Bugaboo,” he cajoles with a slur. “I’m sure it will be fine!”

He spins his extended baton around in his hand before slamming one end against the metal beam they’re standing on. Below them, the streets are cold and quiet, patches of fresh, thick snow dotting the pavement. But, as the sound of metal hitting metal reverberates, the people begin looking up at their direction.

“Seriously, Adrien. I know these suits are more or less indestructible, but you could get seriously hurt, or hurt someone else if this goes wrong.”

Ladybug takes a step towards where her husband is perched on the edge.

“Again. Relax!” Chat Noir draws out the last syllable. “Our lovely audience wants a winter show? They’ll get one!”

Before Ladybug can grab his arm, Chat Noir leaps off the beam, taking a nose dive into the open air.

“Chat Noir!” she cries out as her partner makes a mid-air back flip, eliciting a roar of wonder from their audience. Then, as he passes by the mid-section of the Eiffel Tower, he spins his baton once again, as if he had been defending against an enemy attack. However, right when he finishes and aims one end towards the ground below, feathers slams into his face with a thud. He whirls out of control, arms flailing. He barely notices the bird flying away, or the increasing sound of audible gasps from below.

Before he can hit the pavement, a hand wraps around his arm before he feels himself being swung down and then up, and then into free-fall once again. Seconds later, he’s tumbling down tree branches, one of which nearly misses him in the groin. He lands on a pile of snow with a puff. Then, darkness.

\----

Light shines into his eyes as he feels consciousness seeping back in. The warm duvet has been pulled up to cover him and he realizes he’s back in civilian form. Throbs of pain ebb lightly around his head and he rubs his temple to relieve it.

“Yo!” Plagg whizzes through the door as Adrien gets up. “Look who’s finally awake!”

“What happened last night?” Adrien asks.

“Wow, not even a good morning,” Plagg crosses his arms. “Kid. You gave your girl quite a scare with that little stunt you pulled.”

“Wait, what stunt?”

“You don’t remember?” Plagg guffaws. “Let’s just say it was hilarious and scary at the same time.

“Ok…” the pain sensation fades a bit but not completely. “So why does this-“ he points to his head “-hurt?

As Plagg calms down, he replies, “I don’t know! You tell me.”

“Wait wha-“

“Anyway, you should go out there,” he cuts him off. “I think she’s still pretty upset.”

Adrien doesn’t press anymore, his kwami disappearing once again behind the door. As he wobbles out into the living room, he notices the scent of bread coming from the kitchen. He makes his way there and sees Marinette’s back is toward him while Tikki flits about wiping small spills next to Marinette.

“Hey honey,” he mumbles, loud enough for Marinette to hear while placing a kiss on top of her head.

She doesn’t respond, choosing to focus on filling each uncooked dough with a piece of chocolate . Adrien perks up upon seeing them and grips her waist a little tighter. She moans in protest.

“Are you mad?” he asks her.

Marinette bites back her tongue and quietly scowls. She’d warned him. Not just at the Eiffel Tower, she’d warned him on the way there and several other times in the past. While it wasn’t the first time he’d gone “rogue” as she eventually decided to call it, every time he’d pull a stunt like that, it always threatened to send her to the hospital herself out of panic or shock. Sometimes, the stunts were simply funny, minor incidents or occasions of increased bravado. Other times, like last night, he’d put luck to the test in the worst ways possible.

What Marinette had realized eventually however, was that it would only happen after parties, fancy gatherings or anywhere where alcohol was involved. She takes a deep breath.

“Adrien…” she finally begins, a little terser than she’d intended.

“Yeah?” He replies sheepishly, nuzzling his aching head against her crown.

“Do you remember what happened last night?”

“Um, past the party? Not really.”

“Do you know how many drinks you had?”

“Um, I guess..around…Three-?…Oh,” he pauses. “I did something stupid again, didn’t I?”

His wife softly chuckles to herself before she sighs. “It’s alright _chaton,”_ she remarks, picking up the tray. But Adrien removes himself and groans.

“Adrien?” she glances behind her after placing the pastries into the oven.

“It happened again!” he declares. “I get drunk and go off on some…I don’t even know what.” He looks back at her. “Do I even want to know what I did this time?”

Marinette ponders on it for a moment. On one hand, it would do good to tell her husband yet again of his inebriated escapades. On the other, she’d rather save him from the embarrassment, though he would eventually find out sooner or later because Alya still updates the Ladyblog whenever she can.

But before she utters a word, Tikki pipes in “You jumped off the Eiffel Tower to perform a stunt, dear. Marinette tried to stop you.”

Then, before Adrien can respond, Plagg adds “yeah, and then you proceeded to get thwarted by a pigeon! A pigeon!” the kwami begins howling in laughter while Tikki attempts to shush him.

“Guys?” Marinette interrupts, looking at the two kwami with a glare. “Can you give us a moment please?”

Then, the air grows tense as the two kwami leave. The couple face each other, though Adrien looks down towards the oven.

“Please,” Marinette asks after what feels like long minutes. Adrien slowly turns his head.

“I’m sorry,” he tells her.

Marinette places her hand on his shoulder and softly strokes his arm. “Kitten. It’s ok. What’s important is that you’re safe.”

“It’s clear I can’t even hold alcohol that well,” Adrien points out. “Yet I let myself drink more than I should have.”

“Dear, it was a stuffy party. I’d probably done the same thing if I were you,” she brushes her fingers against her abdomen. “But, are you ok?”

He waits for a moment, before nodding his head. “Yeah, just a slight headache. Probably from the pigeon and alcohol right?”

Marinette giggles. “Actually, yes and no. You might have also hit your head on a tree branch when we landed.”

“We?” he raises an eyebrow.

“Uh, well,” she starts. “You were tumbling too fast and I had to swing us both to safety to avoid hitting any of the passerby's. Unfortunately, metal beams are kinda slippery during the winter."

Adrien cringes visibly.

“Hey, it happened and no one else was hurt,” Marinette chirps with a shrug. She places a hand on his cheek “You’re fine, we’re fine, _minou_.

He grins at her, eyes filling with warmth.

“Now,” she claps her hands on his. “you want some coffee or tea?

Adrien smirks, before leaning in closer so that Marinette feels his breath on her face. “Any, as long as I get that morning kiss."

She closes the space between them with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I'd said earlier, these next couple of prompts were difficult to write about. I really have to thank geek-fashionista/PrincessKitty1 for giving me a push with the idea of "I told you so" as a form of boasting. 
> 
> So in case I was too subtle, that was the point of this drabble.
> 
> The next one might take awhile. We'll see what happens.


	7. It Is Not Proud

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one proved to be a lot easier than the last. I thank @KryallyOrchid and @TheiaNeko for the gentle push in the right direction ^^

“Marinette.”

She marches through the hallway, swinging her arms to and fro with fists clenched tight. Her right knuckle stings just a bit as she pushes the door of the studio building open to the hot summer air.

“Marinette!” He calls out louder from behind, as she pauses right before the street. She turns around to face him when he too exits the building.

“What?” she asks, teeth seething. The wind blows through her short locks of hair. Tikki remains quiet in her jacket pocket.

Looking at her with pleading eyes , Adrien’s brows furrow. “Did you-did you really need to do that?”

“Do what?”

“Say those things! Mari, you didn’t need to be so nasty!”

“She deserved it! Adrien, aren’t you upset too?” Marinette looks away, her voice growing just a bit quieter. “You were right there, and she said those horrible things about us.”

He is silent for a moment, recalling the events that led to his wife’s current temper. One of the models that was scheduled to do a shoot with Marinette’s new designs was a spoiled young woman, who’d mistakenly chosen to grant the couple a series of slurs after having been told that Adrien was Marinette’s husband. It was clear the model had been an old fan of his, but what triggered her to say such unwarranted insults, he did not care to find out.

However, much to his chagrin, Marinette had decided to bite back, throwing out her own set of insults and criticisms at the model in front of the entire team. It was not much of a surprise, since she’d already been going through a rather rough week and her nerves were raw and sensitive, but, it hardly excused her behavior that afternoon. When Marinette burst out of the studio in a huff, she’d left the model in tears and the rest of the team in silence. Then she’d punched the adjacent wall, the loud thud echoing into the studio.

With a sigh, Adrien takes a step forward, bending down so that he’d be within Marinette’s field of vision. When he sees her face, she’s not looking at him, her eyes having welled up with tears. She bites her lower lip.

“Hey,” he says to her, cupping her cheek. His fingers brush against her earlobe while his thumb wipes away a stray tear.

“Were they true-,” he asks as he bends up again, making her look upward. “-what she said?”

A pause. Then, without a word, Marinette shakes her head against his palm and then relaxes into it.

He smiles. “Then we have nothing to worry about.”

“Still,” Marinette mutters in response. “they were uncalled for.”

Adrien takes a deep breath. “Yes, Bugaboo, but frankly, so were yours.”

She doesn’t reply to his words, sagging her shoulders as he releases his hand from her cheek and moves it down her upper arm. He decides to continue.

“As your partner _and_ your husband, I’d strongly suggest you go up to her and apologize. Better to be the bigger person, right? Besides, we kind of still need her for the shoot.”

She’s still quiet, but she nods her head. From the corner of his eye, Adrien sees Tikki smiling up from the pocket and placing her paws on Marinette’s chest in a comforting gesture. Plagg is still deep inside, feigning sleep.

His wife takes a deep breath and lets out a long sigh. “You’re right. Though I wonder if she’d accept my apology."

“I’m sure she will-“

He’s interrupted when the model walks out of the doors, her mascara now ruined by the tears brought on by Marinette’s verbal attack. But that doesn’t stop her from giving Adrien a rather sultry look, sending shivers down his spine and earning an unseen glare from Marinette.

“Miss, we haven’t even done the shoot! Must you leave now?” the photographer begs behind her.

The model harrumphs, ignoring his pleas. When she’s in front of Marinette, she stares at her from top to bottom with scathing eyes. Both women remain silent but Adrien swears lightning can crack at any moment.

Marinette takes a deep breath again, before she starts, “I want to apologize.”

The model raises a curious eyebrow, but her icy look remains.

“I shouldn’t have said those things,” the words feel painful to utter out loud, Marinette realizes. “They were uncalled for and you deserved better.” She nearly winces.

The model is quiet, before the corner of her mouth turns upward. She shrugs with a meh, taking Marinette aback.

“You’re right. I did deserve better. I’m not accepting your apology.”

Marinette blanches. Adrien quickly steps up to stand next to her and takes her hand in his.

“Honestly, _dearie_ , I never wanted to be in that crummy little studio. Someone just promised me some nice clothes and that I’d get to see Adrien Agreste.” The model winks at him again and he winces. “I never really liked the designs either."

Marinette makes a mental note to figure out who that someone is and have a long talk with them.

Before she can reply, Adrien jumps in. “So why did you wait until now to leave?”

The model shrugs her shoulders. “It got boring. Anyway,” she tuts at her wrist. “I have another appointment I need to be in so I’ll be taking my leave now. Good luck with the rags!” she snorts before dramatically turning towards the waiting limousine parked in front of the studio.

Adrien glowers at her direction, rubbing comforting but firm circles around his wife’s wrist at the same time. When the limousine drives away, he turns again to look at Marinette. Surprisingly, her eyes are relaxed.

“Marinette-?”

“That woman…,” she begins.

“Honey, I’m sorry for suggesting-“

“No,” she cuts him off with a deep breath. “You were right in the long run.”

“I can see now why you said what you said. But, are you ok?” he asks her.

“I’ll be fine. It is better to be the bigger person. Besides, it’s not the first time someone didn’t accept my apology.”

He recalls an orange fox-themed super villain with a penchant for lies.

“Well,” Adrien declares. “now that that's over, we’re gonna need a new model.” He whips out his phone from his pocket.

“What are you doing?” Marinette questions him.

He doesn’t reply immediately as he dials a number onto his phone and places it on his ear. His free arm wraps around Marinette’s shoulders, pulling her close to him. He plants a long kiss on the side of her forehead.

“Calling a friend."

\----

Some time later, the model crumples the magazine in anger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only realized when I wrote this that these prompts need not be limited to just between Adrien and Marinette.  
> I'm not going to explain the current status of Marinette's fashion career so I left it obscured.
> 
> I'll leave it to you guys to wonder who this "friend" is (^ u ^)


	8. Dishonor On Your...Cat?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to give it a different title other than what the actual prompt says. 
> 
>  
> 
> Have a new update from my sleep-deprived brain. I'm sorry if it's a mess.  
> Edit: Had to make a slight change after finding out cats actually can eat camembert, just not a lot of it at once.

He stares at it. It stares back at him. He whips his tail back and forth. It whips its tail back and forth as well. He glares and hisses. It mewls.

“MARINETTE!” Plagg finally screams from the top of his lungs.

His cry startles her awake, prompting Marinette to run out of the bedroom half-dressed and hair unkempt.

“What? Is something wrong?” she rushes.

“Do we need to suit up?” Adrien follows out behind her a few moments after, dazed and still in his undergarments. Plagg is hovering up near the window, paws crossed and teeth in a growl. He points to a spot below him. As the two approach the window, there’s a soft meow. Adrien and Marinette are met with one little blue eye, pink nose, and whiskers.

“Adrien, can you please do something about this?” the kwami flails his paws around.

“Um…”

“Aw!” Marinette swoons, approaching the cat slowly before Adrien can respond. She bends down to a crouch and reaches her hand over the cat. White fur peppered with dirt and soot, the cat mewls back, touching its nose to Marinette’s finger tips before shoving the side of its head along her palm. Adrien notices one eye is missing and its right ear has an old bite mark where the tip should be. 

“It’s an intruder! It’s not supposed to be here, it’s gonna eat up all my camembert! And look at it, it’s a mess!”

“Plagg, it’s friendly!” Marinette chided. “See?”

She curls her fingertips until it reaches the cat’s chin and she scratches it. The cat closes its eyes and begins to purr, almost prompting Adrien to do so as well. He loved Marinette’s chin scratches after all.

“First of all,” Adrien interjects with a breath, pointing at the animal, “how did that cat even get in here?”

Plagg flicks his head towards the open window where the curtains flutter. “Someone forgot to shut the window last night,” he says in a mocking tone.

“Oh.” He’d been the last to come in after a very late night patrol. “Oops.”

“You got that right. Seriously, this is exactly why you must always close your windows, or else, _this_ ,” he jabs at the cat’s direction, “will come in and steal all your food…”

Marinette starts meowing at the cat.

“…and your sanity,” Plagg quickly adds.

Tikki pops her head out from the alcove with a long yawn. “What’s going on here?” she asks.

“We have an intruder!” Plagg wails in response.

Tikki sleepily rubs her eyes before she squints downward at the cat, which Marinette has since started petting on its back.

“Um..ok…well, first do you mind shutting the window? It’s been really chilly all night.”

Adrien apologizes to the tiny fairy before walking past his wife to pull the shutters closed. Autumn had since fallen across the rest of Paris, sending the first winds of winter through the city. They had come back from a late patrol the night before, passions flaring despite the chill. When they’d transformed back into their civilian forms still preoccupied with each other, Tikki had rushed straight to the alcove and fallen asleep without even a second thought while Plagg was left awake to the sounds of their lovemaking. Considering Plagg’s current mood, Adrien notes, he hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep.

With another hiss, Plagg hovers closer to the cat and leers at it. The cat ignores him, instead remaining in bliss over Marinette’s ministrations on its fur. Tikki floats out of the alcove to land on her head.

“Are we keeping it?” she asks cheerily, despite her exhaustion.

“Tikki! No!”

Marinette stops petting the cat, earning her a meow of protest. Placing a finger on her own chin, she looks up at Adrien, who blinks at her. “What do you think, _chaton_?"

Her husband just stands there, silent, eyeing the one-eyed cat with a bit of a deadpan look. The cat looks back up at him and meows, before walking over to rub its head all over his leg. Suddenly, he smiles before shrugging his shoulders.

“I don’t see why not. This apartment does allow pets after all!” He glances at Plagg who just gapes at him with the eyes of betrayal.

“Guys!” the black kwami whines, “b-b-but th-this..abomination! I mean just look at it!” Plagg goes for the bitten ear and missing eye. “It..it’s gonna steal my camembert, I swear!"

“Well, it seems to be doing just fine despite its…quirks,” Marinette remarks. “Plus, you shouldn’t be judging it just by its look. Also, cats actually can’t eat a lot of camembert, Plagg. It’s just you."

She hums for a moment before adding, “I agree with Adrien. Let’s keep it, at least for a little while.”

“Ok, but it’s filthy!”

“Aren’t you a cat? Just lick it clean like cats do!” Adrien exclaims, motioning at Plagg’s direction.

“Um, first of all, ew! Second of all, like you implied, I’m not like other cats. I don’t lick other cats clean. Gross!”

“Well, fine. But, Marinette and I have to run some errands now before we can do anything else for the cat so we’ll need you and Tikki to hold down the fort while we’re gone.”

“Wait, what, are you saying you’re leaving me alone with….it?” Plagg’s eyes widen in horror. Tikki watches him warily.

“Someone has to,”Adrien says, checking his watch. “Plus, we’ll need to buy supplies for our new guest. Don’t worry. We won’t be gone long. Couple of hours, tops. You can watch over it in our absence.”

Plagg once again gawks at them. Tikki pats Marinette on the head as she gets up and assures her that she’ll help Plagg out in the cat-sitting. Satisfied, the couple head back to the bedroom to get ready, leaving the two kwami to watch the cat, which gazes curiously at them.

He groans before once again scowling at the creature in front of him.

The cat meows.

\----

When Adrien and Marinette arrive home several hours later, the apartment is quiet. They set down their groceries and supplies before scanning the rest of the living room. Plagg and Tikki are nowhere to be found.

“Guys, we’re home!” Marinette calls out.

Suddenly, Tikki zips out to meet them. She puts a paw in front of her mouth in a shushing motion before leading them into the bedroom where, to the couple’s surprise, the cat is curled in a corner, all cleaned up and brushed. What makes them gape however, is the black kwami nestled at the center of the ball of fur, snoring loudly in response to the cat’s purrs.

“What happened?” Marinette whispers. “How did-?”

“-let’s just say the real cat came out of him.” Tikki interrupts.“Don’t ask though. It wasn’t really a pleasant first experience but he kept at it anyway. I didn't convince him to do anything.”

She winks at them before adding, “By the way, what are you planning on calling the little lady ?”

Marinette and Adrien look at each other knowingly before turning back to the red kwami.

“Well, while we were out, we actually discussed it and…hmm…we decided both on a boy one and a girl one. Glad you checked for us though!”

Tikki nods happily. “So…?”

“We’ve decided,” Adrien begins, “to call her…”

“Emma.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was difficult to write, I can't lie. I started this prompt off with something a lot more serious which could've even added to the development of a more overarching plot-line. But since I wanted to keep these drabbles short, I decided to redo it, and I came up with this. I tried my best to relate it to the prompt/title but it's more of a minor thing really. The prompt was "It Does Not Dishonor Others"
> 
> Anyway, it's official. Marinette and Adrien adopt a pet cat and name it Emma (instead of the usual first daughter) in this AU. The cat was based off one of the stray cats I'd see in college who was very affectionate but had a bite mark on its ear. It wasn't white, but I figured it would be interesting to have a pure white cat :)


	9. A Conversation of Importance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on the prompt "[Love] is not self-seeking"
> 
> A "mid-quel" to the previous chapter, "Dishonor On Your...Cat?"  
> I guess it's not really necessary to read the last one, but this basically takes place during the time Marinette and Adrien are out grocery-shopping while Plagg and Tikki babysit the white cat. So, I'd recommend you read the previous chapter anyway just to get the context.
> 
> Enjoy!

“So what do you think we should name it?”

Marinette pauses, holding a box of cat food in mid-air as she turns to her husband. He’s standing in front of a selection of snacks on the other side of the aisle, fiddling with a stuffed mouse that was clearly not in its correct place.

“Oh. I…actually didn’t think about it,” she admits with a yawn while placing the cat food in the basket.

“Well, why don’t we start now?” he suggests, giving her an excited wink. She grins at him.

“Sure! Also, do you want that?” She points at the stuffed mouse Adrien is still holding.

He quickly releases it, pulling his arm in and stuffing his hand in his coat pocket. “I just…thought the cat might like it!” He shrugs.

She smiles, noticing the hint of red in his cheeks, before walking over to reach up and ruffle his hair. “Silly kitty,” she laughs. Then, to Adrien’s surprise, Marinette quietly takes the stuffed mouse and places it in the basket. He beams when she winks back at him.

A few minutes pass and they enter an area full of accessories, pet toys and food bowls. Something glitters in the corner of Marinette’s view. When she walks closer to investigate, with Adrien ambling behind, she spots a pink collar, decorated with black paw prints all over. Hanging on its center, a bright silver bell jingles when Marinette picks it up.

“This is cute!” she exclaims, showing off the collar to Adrien. “You think it’ll like it?”

Adrien contemplates for a few moments before nodding his head in agreement. He reaches out and playfully taps the bell, ringing it, before Marinette puts it in the basket along with the rest of their items. Satisfied, both of them continue walking down the aisle.

“So,” Marinette glances behind her. “Name!”

“Well, what do you suggest?” Adrien asks, cocking his head to the side as he catches up to walk next to her.

“We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl so maybe we can think of two names?”

“That sounds like a good idea.”

They stop in front of the pet toy section of the aisle, perusing the items while bouncing back a few suggestions at each other, such as “Clara”, ‘Felice” and “Mortimer”. Adrien laughs at the last name, much to Marinette’s lighthearted chagrin, when he points out the irony that Mickey Mouse has a rival named Mortimer Mouse. More suggestions are added into the name bowl as they settle into their usual, playful banter, but no name is chosen.

“It’s kinda funny. It feels like we’re prepping to welcome a new family member into our home,” Adrien remarks as they reach the food bowls.

Marinette laughs. “The cat _will_ be a new family member! At least for the time being.”

“Well, yeah true, but I mean an actual blood-related, totally-dependent-on-us-until-they-grow-up member.”

“You mean a child, _minou_?” she suggests, arching an eyebrow.

He nods with a hum, lips pursed.

“I guess,” she ponders. “Except in this case, the new member is furry and not a product of…” she wags her finger between the two of them, “…this.”

Adrien quirks an eyebrow with a chuckle, smirking. “This?”

“You know…” Suddenly, she’s feeling hot and blood is rushing up her cheeks. “..like what we did last night!”

“Which was….?” Adrien waggles his eyebrows, as his gaze lowers to her lips. “What _did_ we do last night, Buginette?”

Marinette mentally has to stop herself from smacking him right then and there. While she'd gotten used to his puns, Adrien also knew how to be inappropriate when he wanted to be. But he's still staring at her with cunning humor, so Marinette can only groan.

“Oh gosh…sex!” She finally cries out in exasperation, only to catch the attention of an old man standing behind Adrien, who stares at them curiously. He then gives them a deadpan look. Marinette swears she hears him mutter something about times changing and free love. Choosing not to dwell on it, she presses her face against her palm with a sigh, squeezing the bridge of her nose. “You really wanted me to say that out loud, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t ask you to say anything! I knew what you were talking about!” He continues to smile cockily at her.

“Then why..?” She pauses. “…You know what? Never mind. We’re married, we’re adults, this is totally ok to talk about!”

“Of course! Nothing to be ashamed of-“

“-Anyway,” she decides to cut him off and Adrien laughs. “Let’s figure out a name...”

After one last chuckle, Adrien relents. However, instead of reviving their previous conversation about what names to use, Marinette suddenly falls into a tense silence. She’s now staring at the food bowls. Her lips purse in thought, but Adrien is sure she's not trying to choose a bowl.

“You alright, Bugaboo?” Adrien asks. “I’m sorry if that was too much.”

“No, it’s fine, but…that whole conversation just made me think…” She trails off without looking at him, her hand unconsciously drifting down to her abdomen. “How are you now about that?”

“Huh?” She says the question so quietly, it catches Adrien off-guard. Thanks to the odd way it was worded, he has to play her question and their conversation in his head again before his eyebrows arch up in realization.

“Ah…I-I…I don't...”

“Never mind, it’s ok if you don’t want to talk about it.”

He kicks himself for pausing for too long. “Mari…”

“Anyway, what food bowl suits a white ca-?”

“Marinette.”

She flinches at his quick, sharp tone, then waits for him to continue. But he doesn’t.

He’s silent, and Mari takes this pregnant pause to continue darting her attention among the food bowls before setting her eyes on a silver one at the corner of a multi-colored stack. However, as she reaches to pick it up, Adrien takes the food bowl gently from her when her fingers wrap around its edge.

“Wha-?” she turns to him.

“-Marinette, please. Wait.”

He’s frowning, and for another minute, the air is quiet, as if everyone around them has disappeared. The old man has since moved on so it is just the two of them in the aisle. Adrien starts to lean toward her, eyes glazed.

“Adrien…” She breathes.

Then, she feels _him_. Cupping her cheek, Adrien closes the space between them, their lips locking together. Her short hair tickles his fingers. As their eyes drift to a close, Adrien wraps his free arm around her and drops the silver bowl from his other hand into the basket as he presses her closer against him. They ignore the loud clang, as well as the attention of a few onlookers that have since peeked into the aisle. Adrien holds her close, inhaling her scent. Then, after a few more seconds, he lets her go.

“Marinette,” he whispers again as he releases her.

“Yes?” she lets out in a small pant.

“I do want to have one.”

“I-I…what?” Her eyes widen in surprise.

“I want to have a child with you, My Lady,” he remarks, with all the sincerity he can muster. “I really do. I know you've always wanted to have one and I know it would be the most amazing thing in the world. You'd be a wonderful mother but I-I...“

He cuts off when he feels her warm hand on his cheek.

“It’s ok, Adrien. I know,” she confesses. “I know you don’t feel ready yet.”

Her eyes are glossy but filled with warmth and love. It’s all Adrien can do not to melt at her gaze. But her last statement snaps him out of his stupor.

“Wait,” he blinks. “How?”

“Y-you had this way of..trailing off whenever the subject of kids came up,” she began to explain. “I could tell you liked the idea, but when you really started to think about it, you’d suddenly want to change the subject, like you were scared or something.”

“Wow, you could read all of that, huh?”

“You pick things up about your partner over time just by observation, _Chaton_ ,” she lightly winks, earning a chuckle from her husband.

“I see. Well, you’ll be happy to know that I’ve picked things up about you too, my dear!” He quickly bends down to nuzzle her cheek.

“Stop!” she yelps playfully.

“Like how you love it when I blow raspberries on your face.” As if to prove his point, he makes a farting noise against her skin. Marinette cries out both in protest and in laughter, once again, attracting the attention of nearby shoppers. Fortunately, they’re quick to look away.

“Or like at night,” he adds after pulling away with a sly grin and lick on his lips. “whenever I get to-“

“Oh-k! We don’t need to go there, especially not here!” She pushes him away a bit firmly.

 He relents his teasing assault, as his laughter trails off, then he takes the basket from her before she can make another cry of protest. He doesn’t get one however, supposing she’s allowing him to carry it for her this time.

“Anyway, Adrien, I’m happy,” she sighs, feeling her eyes well up. “ I don’t mind if you’re not ready for a kid yet, especially right now. It hasn’t even been six months since the wedding, so there’s no rush at all. Even I am not feeling ready just yet. But I’m just…glad that you’re willing to do this with me… one day.”

Then, once again, she’s looking at him with all the strength and affection in her eyes. Mustering up his remaining self-control, Adrien chooses to place his hand on her shoulder in comfort instead, squeezing it lightly. He wants to hug her, but he supposes there has been enough public displays of affection for the other shoppers.

“Mari,” he begins with a smile. “I know you’ve always wanted to have kids. Alya even told me about that one time you gushed about what names you wanted to have with me that one time in _collège_.” He can’t help but smile at the memory.

“Oh my gosh, she told you that too? I’m gonna-”

He raises his other hand to placate her growing ,though unnecessary, annoyance. “Not the point,” he states when she pouts.

Then, a thought occurs in his head. They had not, after all this time spent in the pet store, settled on two possible names for the cat yet. So, with a pensive look, he asks her. “What were the names you told her that time? Could you remember them all?”

“Uh…” Marinette takes a long pause to recollect what she’d told her best friend . “Emma…Hugo…and Louis. I swear we don’t have to name our kids like that though! I mean times change and I could like different ones-”

“It’s ok, they’re all wonderful names!” He comments.

She scrunches her eyes in surprise. “What are you saying?”

“You said it yourself! The cat _will_ be a new family member! Like having a kid!”

“Wait, are you saying you want to name-?”

“Yeah! I mean, if you’re ok with it, that is. I actually liked that first one a lot. Emma, was it?”

She nods, still in disbelief.

“What do you think?” he asks her sheepishly.

Marinette looks down, choosing to gaze at her husband’s shoes as she thinks about his proposition. She had wanted to use those names for their future kids for years now, and to be honest, she’d kept them as possibilities for just as long, even after the reveal and they had gotten together and later on married. But her husband was suggesting they’d use it for a cat instead, which was something Marinette had not exactly anticipated, nor had she even considered that they were going to be getting a cat in the first place. But, now that she thinks about it, they would be treating the cat like one of their own. It would even serve as practice for them, though she knew cats were fairly independent creatures from the beginning. So, with a final inhale, she looks back at Adrien, and nods.

“Ok, yes. It fits.” she declares, much to Adrien’s joy. Then, she adds, “And if it’s a guy, we can call him Emile. How does that sound?”

Adrien’s smile widens even more, and he nods excitedly. “Yeah! I like that! Very much! So we’re settled then?”

Marinette winks at him and sways her hips. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

“Great!”

“Now, let’s finish this shopping. We still have to go get some groceries!”

“Yeah, and Plagg and Tikki are waiting for us. I just hope they’re not trashing the apartment right now,” he sighs.

Marinette waves her hand in his direction as they start to walk out of the aisle.

“I’m sure they’re getting along just fine!”

With that, they continue their shopping, but not before Adrien places a peck on his wife’s cheek and those three eternal words in her ear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there you have it. I decided to delve a little deeper into Adrien's reservations about having a kid. I don't know how much I'll do that in future chapters, but we'll see what happens, since, as I had mentioned in an earlier chapter, the reservations would've technically been part of a bigger plot line I planned but fell through.
> 
> And yes, I alluded to _things_ twice this time. It's perfectly normal to talk about.. "married couple things" when you're married, just saying. 
> 
> It was actually easier to think off with an idea for the prompt here, but this time, it was the writing itself that was the challenging part. Took me several days to come up with the final product.


	10. A Kwami's Tale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this took forever to write, I'm not even joking. You can also blame the schoolwork which drained all my creative writing energy for a good few weeks. 
> 
> I tried something new; channeled my inner kwami.
> 
> Hope you enjoy.
> 
> Thank you to @SarahCada for the beta read!!

Ah, humans. They can be such fickle creatures, you know. One moment they could be helping some old lady cross the street or playing ball with their kid, the next they’re sending the entire world into chaos. I’ve seen it happen, and let me tell you, kid, it ain’t pretty. It’s a pain in the a-…I mean butt-you’re too young for that other word.

Now,remember, kid, while the world seems bleak, there are always silver linings. Yeah, I know, cliche but true. I mean take my holder for example. Bright, kind, a bit of a dork, and probably one of the best Chat Noir's I’ve ever come to known in a century, at least. I usually try to keep my distance from my holders, but this guy... Tikki says I’ve grown quite a soft spot of him. 

Don’t tell him I said that! 

It’s probably because he keeps giving me cheese whenever I ask, even when we hadn’t just gone Claws Out or anything. The guy’s loaded so that probably explains it. Anyway, that’s just a bonus…

But ever since he and Ladybug finally, ya know, got together and whatever, he’s been a lot happier. It comes with the territory of being halves of one, I tell you. But then, they got married and suddenly they were met with all kinds of new problems. Problems I’d rather not dirty my hands with. But we try to help them, they help each other, everyone’s happy…most of the time. I mean they’re human! People always have problems.

Ok, you know what? I’ll just tell you a story instead. So sit quiet, don’t move, and  _ definitely _ do not touch that ball of yarn over there. 

\---

It was a few weeks after the wedding, and you know how people are during like those first couple of weeks or months, I dunno, they’re all lovey-dovey, sappy and hormonal, jeez. So here are those two, home from a date and they can’t get their hands off of each other. It was ridiculous. I was ready to tape my ears shut, and Tikki’s right next to me just eating cookies. And they say I was the gluttonous one.

Well, then suddenly, one of them trips over the couch! Oh man, it was the funniest thing, cuz the next thing Adrien knows, he’s face-planted onto the couch. But anyway, he knocks over the bottle of wine they’d asked us to put out for them when they came back as a favor. I didn’t do it, I’m not his slave. But anyway, the stuff ends up getting all over one of Marinette’s sketchbooks on the coffee table and those two dorks just break up like two like poles of a magnet.

Marinette’s then running to grab her sketchbook and my poor holder is just yelling out apology after apology after apology. I’m pretty sure Marinette was going to explode cuz I heard her mutter something about being her latest sketchbook, or upcoming projects.. And I see Adrien’s jaw drop a few storeys. The sketchbook is soaked.

Hey, are you still listening? Put that down! Good. Moving on.

Now here’s the thing. I hid. Why? Because you do NOT want to witness Marinette’s wrath. Believe me. I mean, there’s that exasperated, annoyed look she tends to make at us for having to listen to our puns whenever she’s not in the mood but, then there’s the “I-might-be-secretly-hating-you-right-now-so-I-won’t-talk-to-you kind of mad”. Yeah, it’s terrifying. She’ll get super quiet and answer you like you’re not worth her time. And that’s when she’s upset about something else. It’s worse when she’s upset with you.

Thankfully, they manage to talk out whatever problem there is eventually and that whole scenario doesn’t happen too often. But that day, it looked like it would.

See, the thing is, Marinette is kind of particular about her fashion stuff. She’s gotten quite a bit touchy with those kinds of things ever since she’d started getting a regular flow of clients for her fashion designs. She’s certainly not like Gabriel in that sense, but she’s protective. As in super. In fact she once yelled at me when I was about to paw one of her fabrics.  _ Paw _ . Not claw.

So there we are, staring at that warrior woman and Tikki’s flying to her side hoping to calm her down. Adrien’s distressed, my tail is puffed and then…

Marinette  _ laughs _ .

I mean hysterically! She doubles over, nearly in tears. Adrien’s got this confused look on his face, and so did Tikki and I, actually. Marinette just goes on for minutes and eventually Adrien approaches her warily, while Tikki is floating next to him. Next thing I know, she’s leaving the sketchbook on the untouched part of the table and hugging him.

So, as it turns out, Marinette had been meaning to throw that sketchbook out for weeks. The idea must have slipped her mind that night, I suppose. I mean, ok as an artist you should probably keep all your work, but that time, she must have hit some kind of block because she suddenly looked so ready to get rid of it. Well, that wine did the job for her, I guess.

I didn’t bother eavesdropping the rest of her conversation with Adrien. Since I’m such a nice kwami, I gave them space.

…

…Ok, fine, so Tikki dragged me out of the room. Not the point!

Eventually, Adrien told me about that conversation during a man-to-kwami talk. Don’t tell him I actually enjoy having those. Turns out, Mari had had a rough week with a client that she didn’t really bother talking to Adrien about until that night because she figured she could deal with it herself. The guy had been asking her to make all of these changes for him. He was quite adamant about whatever he wanted yet he could never be satisfied.

Know this: I would’ve bitten his hairy end if I could. The thing was though, he was willing to pay a large sum if Mari was able to get it right. And she couldn’t, so reluctantly she had to let the guy go. And the sketchbook? Which was filled with all those failures from the client? Yeah, she definitely had a hard time letting  _ that _ go. Bad luck for the good, she said, cuz if it hadn't been for the wine, she might not never gotten rid of it. Yeah, I don’t get the logic either. 

But after all, we can’t have everything work out right?

Well, I think that’s the end of the story. Those two ended up finishing what they’d started after cleaning up the mess and throwing the sketchbook into the recycle bin and I ended up needing to actually leave the apartment  _ again _ for some quiet solitude. Tikki decided to join me instead of dragging me, I mean it was a nice night out anyway. But ugh. Those guys can be loud. I really hope that when you find your man, you don’t turn out like them. 

Why are you staring at me like that? 

Stop it. 

Look, no one’s perfect. Those two were made for each other but even they have their rough moments. They’re not perfect, you’re not perfect, I’m not perfect…

...though I must say, I come pretty close. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based off the prompt: It Is Not Easily Angered.
> 
> These prompts are just getting harder and harder to write for, I am so sorry. 
> 
> If you hadn't guessed yet, he was talking to Emma. 
> 
> Also, I think I'm going to keep that Plagg-hates-their-loud-lovemaking running gag in this.
> 
> Honestly, out of all the running gags though...


	11. A Frame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Love keeps no record of wrongs.
> 
> Enjoy! Have something short and choppy once again.

“Marinette?”

“Yes?”

“Uh…what happe-?”

“-it was an accident.”

“By who?”

“Who else?”

“Plagg?”

“No.”

“Emma?”

“No.”

“Tik-?”

“Adrien, I did it.”

“Oh.”

“You know me.”

“Very true.”

“Clumsy me.”

“So?”

“I broke the frame, Adrien—.”

“—we can replace it—

“-of your last photo with your father.”

“Did you do it on purpose?”

“…no?”

“Then, it’s fine.”

“You’re ok?”

“Honey, yes.”

“But I-“

“Bugaboo.”

“I know you care about that photo a lo-“

“Marinette.”

“I’m so so-“

“Come here.”

“Wha-?”

“Let me kiss you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So guys, I'm sorry for the recent lull in activity. College and thesis has really been kicking in the rear so I haven't even been able to draw that regularly by the time of posting or write.
> 
> This prompt was especially difficult to write, considering the limits I was putting myself regarding possible season plots. I want these scenarios to be able to work with whatever Astruc comes up with in the upcoming seasons so I'm keeping their past between Season 1 and the "present" time fairly vague for now.
> 
> I actually have other drafts that were much wordier than this, but the challenge lay in exactly what record of wrongs could happen between them realistically, considering their married relationship. Thus to overcome challenges of exposition, I simply just avoided it entirely and wrote this entire drabble on dialogue alone.
> 
> If you think you know what I'm implying by "last" then you're probably correct.


	12. The Truth is, I Love You.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The assistant rears her ugly head once again  
> ...for the last time.
> 
> Prompt: Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I should add a warning. I'll be tackling about a current societal issue (that is, harassment) in this chapter.
> 
> I hope I did ok. I don't plan on upping the rating on this because this is something *everyone* needs to know about. Don't worry, I tried to handle the issue as maturely as I could.
> 
> This is my first time writing on this topic and I know it's sensitive so please bear with me.
> 
> Also, this is officially the longest drabble I've written so far.

The door makes a loud creak as Adrien shoves his body through it.

Startled, Marinette looks up from her sewing to see a haggard Adrien walking in, hauling what appears to be a huge bouquet of roses in his arms.

“Um, Adrien?”

He huffs before almost dropping the bundle on the seat in front of him. “Hold on a sec, lemme catch my breath,” he pants.

Plagg flies out from his bag with a small ball of yarn in this paws. While Adrien is bent down, he plants himself on the top of his golden hair, sitting regally, it’s almost humorous to look at.

After takinga few breaths, Adrien opens his mouth to speak—

“—You’ll never believe who left these in Adrien’s office today,” Plagg interrupts with a smirk, tail wagging.

Marinette frowns, and Adrien shakes his head to rid of the kwami.

“Who?” Tikki asks before Marinette gets to.

“That assistant of his!” Plagg cries, tosses his yarn ball to the side, which Emma picks up and starts to play with. Adrien frowns at his kwami.

“No way!” Tikki gasps. “That…sneaky little bi-,”

“—Tikki!” Adrien snaps, before quickly muttering apologies to the kwami.

“Yes?” she responds soothingly, but her tail vibrates a bit with annoyance.

“Can you please give Mari and I a chance to talk?” he asks her with a sigh. “Alone?”

“But,” Plagg retorts, “you’re never alone—“

“Plagg.”

“Fine, fine whatever, Adrien.” Plagg floats towards the red kwami. “Come on,” he mutters, staring pointedly at his counterpart.

Tikki takes the time to look at Marinette with a frown. “Everything going to be alright?” she asks.

Marinette shoots her a smile before opening her hand to let Tikki settle on her palm. She seems so much smaller nowadays, Marinette thinks, as she rubs the tip of her finger on top of Tikki’s head.

“Of course,” she replies. “I’m sure it’s nothing too serious, Tikki.”

The red kwami nods before jerking up back into the air to follow her grumbling partner to the alcove. While they aren’t within their holders’ line of sights, the kwami are certainly within earshot. It’s not a problem for any of them, but during times like these, having the near-false sense of privacy between the couple is enough to relax them before talking about graver matters, though Plagg could probably ramble on about the numerous debates and discussions the two have had, especially those that ended up bordering on the level of petty. Marinette lightly shakes her head from her thoughts before turning back to Adrien, only to finally get a good look at his cheek.

Her eyes widen in shock.

“Marinette. What’s wrong?”

On his cheek is the unmistakable mark of lipstick.

“Adrien…,” she whispers, before raising a finger at his face. “What’s that…?”

Her husband blinks owlishly at her. “What are you talking about?”

Marinette frowns. He couldn’t seriously be unaware of that—

“Your cheek.” She points out. “There’s—“

Before she can continue, Adrien wipes a finger where the lipstick mark lay. When he looks at it, his mouth lies agape. Marinette then hears him mutter,

“I thought I’d wiped that off…”

Fear floods through Marinette’s being. She knows she shouldn’t worry. Her partner-turned-friend-turned-husband had made it perfectly clear he’d stay faithful to her over and over again. They’d been together for ten years now. But, to see that someone else had made a mark of affection—no, she thinks. She’s just overreacting. Plenty of people kiss each other in non-romantic context. There’s no need to worry. But those flowers..who were they from?

As if sensing Marinette’s distress, Adrien staggers over to her and rubs her shoulder.

“Marinette, it’s alright,” he coaxes. “There’s no need to worry.”

He says that too, she thinks. She glances up to him to see his warm eyes gazing at her. The lipstick has been smudged away, though it hasn’t come off completely. Still, even with Adrien’s assurances, she frowns.

“Who gave these to you?” She asks him, eyes flashing.

He scoffs before his own eyebrows furrow when he glares at the bouquet on the seat. “That assistant of mine,” he finally admitted.

Her ears perk at the confession. “Your..assistant?” she asks incredulously.

“Remember that girl I told you about awhile ago? The one whose job it was to help me with my work yet shirked off responsibility and kept flirting with me instead?”

“Uh, yeah once or twice, but you haven’t mentioned her since.” Marinette shrugs. But, really, she should’ve known.

“Yeah, I didn’t have a reason to, until recently. She’s been…pretty bold as of late. It started off with little touches, sometimes actually obeying what I asked, and then she got more..experimental I suppose. I tried to ignore everything and just focus on my work. It’s weird and I’m not sure why I’m her target.”

“Well, she clearly doesn’t hate you,” they hear Plagg yell out sarcastically from the alcove only to be shushed by Tikki.

Marinette ignores him. “So, wait, the kiss and the flowers?”

“Both from her. Honestly I was caught off-guard by the kiss. I’d just been packing up, ready to leave with some ‘secret-admirer’s’ gift of flowers and a ball of yarn, when she randomly appeared at my front door, looking all sultry and seductive. It was creepy, really.”

Marinette harrumphs but lets him continue.

“She walks up to me and asks ‘so how do you like the flowers?” and she’s getting real close and I’m still stuck on my desk, cuz she’s right there. Before I know it, she’s on me, planting this,” he points to his poorly-wiped cheek.

Adrien shudders at the memory and unconsciously rubs the area further until all the lipstick is gone.

“Seriously, if I hadn’t rushed out of there right after, she might’ve already started untying my tie.” He gulps at the thought and unknowingly fiddles with the knot.

“Can’t you do something about this?” Marinette suggests calmly. But deep down, she’s fuming and wants to react. Someone was hitting on her husband, unwanted, for crying out loud.

“I’m pretty sure there are laws and policies against this sort of behavior,” she points out.

“There are,” he sighs. “It just so happens that this assistant is the daughter of one of the higher-ups of the school, so in a sense she’s gotten immunity or something. I don’t know, it’s sleazy but I’m scared I’ll just cause more trouble if I talked to someone behind her back.”

“Look,” Marinette grips his shoulder, trying to contain her anger. Her voice can’t hide the hint of poison mixed with concern in it however. “You’ve already made it clear you’re not interested and yet she still tries to get at you. It doesn’t matter who she’s connected with. She’s clearly harassing you. That kind of thing needs to be dealt with immediately or else it just gets worse.”

“You sound like you have ex- _purr_ -rience,” Adrien jests with a smile. She just gives him a deadpanned look in response.

“Sorry, inappropriate timing…anyway, you think they’re going to listen to me?”

“They should,” she replies, placing her hands on her hips. “If you want, I can come with you to talk to your boss or something.”

He hums in thought about the idea, but chooses to decline having his wife join him in complaining about it.

“It will be alright, I think,” Adrien tries to assure her. “My superior is a nice old lady. She’ll understand.”

Marinette simply frowns before going back to her sewing.

“Whatever you say, _chaton_ ,” she waves with a devilish smile. “Just remember that I love you.”

“I need no such reminder,” Adrien smirks at her with a wink.”Everything will work out, I promise you.”

He gives her a quick kiss on the lips for added guarantee.

***

Sure enough, a few days later, when Madame Beaufort calls him in for a weekly report, he tells her of the situation and for several seconds, all she can do is stare at him in shock, glasses tilted on her face. But unlike Marinette, the Madame reacts almost violently and starts calling through her intercom to her secretary, asking for this and that person. At one point, she even yells at Adrien for not telling her sooner. His boss is clearly as feisty as his wife, Adrien notes with a sheepish grin.

Needless to stay, within the next two weeks, Adrien is once again without an assistant and the father acting as a board member has chosen to take a “temporary” (in fine print, permanent) leave. Madame Beaufort offers Adrien her sincerest apologies for the fuss that had come along with the report, papers to sign, a few interviews, but everything had gone smoothly. By the urging of her father, the girl had decided to simply leave the school instead of risking going to court. Whatever consequences she has to face, Adrien chooses not to dwell on it. 

The fortunate thing was, and Adrien’s glad his Lady’s luck had been with him, most everyone supported Adrien during the fiasco. Typically it was the women who experienced such harrowing ordeals but clearly, someone as trustworthy as Adrien could be believed when he told the Madame and those under the human resources department what had happened and what was going on. There might have been a few dissenters, those who couldn’t imagine such a thing would even happen to a man, but he kept himself from dwelling on it.

In fact, much later on, this story of his would prove to be a good example and testimony to future employees and students of the school.

He smiles to himself as he heads home.

 

***

“So how was your day, Adrien?” Ladybug asks him as he settles down on a rooftop after her during one of their rare patrols.

“Good, good! Students weren’t as _reow-_ dy today. Managed to get through the whole lesson this time so they’re happy,” he gives her his Chat-Noir grin.

She smirks at him, before adding, “no more of that assistant?”

“Nope! She’s gone for good! Last I heard, she ended up moving cities! Guess the whole thing was hard on her and her family.”

“Well,” Ladybug shrugs. “Could’ve been worse.”

He looks at her curiously.

“You could’ve brought it to court.”

“Ah, right,” Chat Noir scratches an ear. “Well, I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt of having her lesson learned. If she ever comes back and shown she hasn’t then yes, I’d probably would.”

Ladybug smiles at him as they fall into peaceful silence. It had been a few weeks since the whole ordeal and all she can do is sigh contentedly at the sunset before her. Patrol was supposed to start after dinner but she and her husband had chosen to begin early. They both needed the breath of fresh air.

“So…,” Adrien starts.

She twitches her brow in question as he pauses for a few seconds before continuing.

“…You know I love you right?”

Marinette’s eyes perk up at him. “Of course,” she says, voice trickling with suspicion. “Adrien, what’s going on?”

“Nothing! Just…after what happened, I just thought I should, you know, tell you again.”

“Adrien, it’s ok, I—“

“—please, My Lady,” he begs, as he scoots closer to his wife, before standing up. He offers his hand to her. “Please, hear _me-owt_.”

Ladybug lets out a chuckle as she is pulled up. “Fine, alright, what have you got to say, kitten?” she asks, teasingly.

“Let’s be serious right now,” he insists as he shifts his head a bit closer to hers while taking her hands into his own.

“I’m listening.”

It quickly becomes difficult not to close her eyes and simply relish in her partner’s presence. He rubs his thumbs on her knuckles.

“We’ve been through so much together, My Lady,” Chat Noir begins. “We were together when we battled our first akuma. We were together, with the team, when we defeated Hawk Moth, we were together, at least a lot, whenever we had to do homework, and we’re still together even today.”

Ladybug giggles at the memory of their homework parties.

“I’m so happy you’re here with me,” he continues. “I thank you, actually, for these last couple of weeks. You helped me with dealing with the issue. I needed a nudge, and you provided it. You keep me on my toes and watch out for me even if I might not like it all the time.”

Ladybug hums in agreement.

“I love you, Marinette,” he gazes at her, trying to communicate all of his feelings through his eyes. “When we said our vows together at the altar, I meant mine completely, with all my life, one hundred percent.”

He nudges their hands a bit for added emphasis.

“I will never leave you, my dear, sweet Marinette. Even beyond sickness, health, death, whatever it may be, even if it’s some new super-villain or some creepy assistant, I will always choose you in the end, to be by your side.”

Marinette can feel her much younger self squealing delightfully inside her chest and it takes all of her self-control not to interrupt him by throwing herself at him. Instead, her smile widens in glee.

“I didn’t choose you because you were pretty, or because you were a superhero or because you were, what, class president?”

Ladybug laughs.

“No, I fell in love you because of who you are. Who you became as time passed. At first, we were simply partners then friends, then, best friends. To be honest,” Chat Noir looks down at his feet for a quick second before bring his eyes back to Ladybug’s. “I think that I’d fallen for you all over again after we’d finally revealed ourselves to each other.”

Ladybug’s pretty sure she’s heard all of this before, but it doesn’t stop his words from filling up a cat-shaped space in her heart once again, full to bursting. She glances at his lips in anticipation before struggling refocus on her husband, who has since pulled her a bit closer.

“I love you, Marinette,” he declares, kissing her knuckles on both sides before laying them against his chest, still underneath his large fingers.

“I love you,” he tells her as he moves to kiss her forehead and nuzzles against her hair. Ladybug breathes him in deeply. Then, Chat Noir bends down to lay a chaste kiss on the corner of her mouth. His breath tickles her cheek.

“I love you,” he whispers as he begins to pull away to kiss her on the other side.

“I lov—“

Ladybug crashes her lips against his as she yanks at his collar before wrapping her arms around his neck. Caught off-guard, Chat Noir stumbles into her before he too tugs her against him, eyes closing. She hums into him, the kiss lasting a few more seconds while the last rays of the sun bathe them in tendrils of warmth.

When Ladybug pulls away, she mutters out an apology for interrupting his speech, but Chat Noir hears none of it before he’s on her again. His hands find her waist and he elicits a soft moan from her as she begins to comb her fingers through his hair. His tail twitches in excitement before wrapping itself around his wife’s leg.

A few minutes later, they find themselves entwined on the rooftop with a unfinished patrol.

Plagg doesn’t get to sleep well that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO, GUYS. I stayed up till 2AM writing this because I had enough energy and I wanted to get this done so I could post it as a companion piece to this fan art --> (https://qookyquiche.tumblr.com/post/159497030270/i-love-you-he-tells-her-as-he-moves-to-kiss-her)
> 
> I decided to revisit that assistant I'd mentioned way back in my second drabble of this group of ficlets (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9518165/chapters/21523187).
> 
> Figured at some point, she'd need to be dealt with and after some brainstorming over what to write about based on the prompt, she was my lightbulb moment. 
> 
> Please don't yell at me if I didn't get some things right though, guys. I know a lot of people deal with sexual harassment differently but it's highly recommended to go directly to the authorities and report the issue immediately because those things need to be dealt with in a swift manner.
> 
> I am aware of the issues that come with it though (such as bureaucracy, discrimination, victim-blaming, etc. etc.) Trust me I come from a country full of that stuff, unfortunately. So in a sense (and because time was short and I wanted to keep this brief), I chose to go about it in a very ideal way, if everything goes right.
> 
> I mean it might not be super accurate but from what I researched, the sexual harassment in France had gotten so bad, groups cried out to the government and they've been dealing with it for about two years now? But it was all on women harassment, and not men, so I wasn't sure...
> 
> Anyway, I REALLY REALLY HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS ANYWAY, despite the flaws.  
> Also, this is the 2nd sappiest thing I've written in this set of fics xD


	13. I'll Protect You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of mini-drabbles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt was a lot easier this time around so I decided to make a quadruple feature :)  
> I haven't written the rest of the love square enough times.
> 
> Prompt: Love always protects
> 
> Featuring: Two Ladynoir , One Marichat, One Ladrien in a series of chronological events.
> 
> ENJOY!

_***_

_Un._

“Ladybug! Get down!”

Chat Noir launches himself at his partner, grabbing her by the waist and throwing them off to the side right before a large projectile explodes on the spot Ladybug had previously been standing on. They roll across the street before he finds himself settling on top of her and for a few moments, he expects Ladybug to shove him off and continue with the fight…

….but she doesn’t…

When he peeks, he sees Ladybug wildly staring into the sky before she turns to meet his eyes and suddenly, her gaze sends a rush of warmth down his being. He blinks owlishly at her as if time had paused.

This is new, he thinks.

Ladybug lays her hand on his arm and whispers a thank you before gently pushing him off her and running away to deal with the akuma.

He takes a few more seconds before he follows after her.

 

***

_Deux._

It’s too fast, he realizes, as the runaway train speeds down toward him. He thought he could do it, maybe stop the train by a Cataclysm. What was he thinking? That train was big enough to run him over like paper. Even if he did induce a Cataclysm he’d be road—or in this case— rail-kill before it would stop or shrivel into pieces. He and Ladybug had agreed to split up so she could focus on getting the passengers off the train while he focused on slowing the train down. But, to Ladybug’s shock, he’d chosen to do it in a once-and-for-all method through Cataclysm. Seriously, he was an idiot!

As the train comes closer, Chat Noir realizes his legs can’t move and he grips his baton tightly in one hand while readying his other with Cataclysm, all the while mentally kicking himself. It’s now or never, he thinks. His miraculous suit would probably take the brunt of the damage anyway but for sure this was going to hurt.

He braces himself.

Nothing happens.

Suddenly, he feels himself being lifted off the ground by an unseen figure. When they pass under a light, he sees Ladybug with a frown, holding him bridal-style.

“Chat Noir!” she cries out at him as they land in one of the abandoned stations. She nearly grabs him by the collar and lifts him up but instead chooses to grip his shoulders instead.

“Ladybug! Wait! The train!”

“Forget about that, it’s fine, I got everyone out and managed to set it on some makeshift breaks—don’t ask how—before it got to you so it should slow down in a bit. What were you thinking?!” She’s shaking him violently as she pants after that long-winded speech.

“I-I-thought I could—,” his voice trembles as he remembers how terrifying Ladybug can be when she’s upset.

Yet, instead of more vocal lashing, Ladybug wraps herself around Chat Noir’s torso and pulls him close. He hesitates, before moving his arms around her as well, pigtails brushing against his suit. Far away, he can hear the screeching of the train as it slowly grinds to a halt, but not without a loud thud as it hits the end of the railway. Attention back to his partner in front of him, he hears her breathing in and out slowly, no doubt taking in his scent. He secretly revels in the feeling. As a gesture of comfort, he rubs his hand down Ladybug’s back and pats her on the head before pulling her just a little bit tighter against him.

“I know our suits are invincible, Adrien,” she remarks against his chest. He frowns. She usually doesn’t call him by his first name whenever they’re Ladybug and Chat Noir out in the open. 

“But, please, don’t do that again,” she continues, voice quivering. “I don’t want to have use my healing powers to deal with your broken bones.”

He can feel something warm and moist pool on his chest. He tugs her in tighter before finally releasing her at the same time she does with him. His arms remain on her shoulders.

“Look, _bugaboo_. I’m here, alright? I’m ok. I mean, fine what I did was incredibly dumb and you should knock me unconscious if I do something that stupid again, but I’m alright now. I’m here.”

He gazes at her, silently comforting her with the best of his ability. Her eyes have grown slightly puffy, but she wipes them and smiles back at him. It hadn’t been very long since they’d revealed themselves to each other, and while the adjustment was a bit rough on both of them, their partnership remained steady.

Ladybug remains silent and presses her forehead back on Chat Noir’s chest.

“I promise I won’t do anything that stupid again,” he murmurs against her hair.

Ladybug shakes her head. “I don’t need a promise, _mon minou_. Just…”

She nuzzles him even more, sending goosebumps down Chat Noir’s back and his chest.

“…just know I’ll be there to save you whenever the time comes.”

Chat Noir sighs as the thrum of a crowd gathering grows louder through the tunnels.

“And, I, you, My Lady.”

 

 

***

 _Trois_.

The wedding would be in two months.

Speeding through the wind, Ladybug jumps a few more rooftops with a whoop, almost knocking a sleeping pigeon off its perch. She reaches the end of a stretch and finishes her patrol by sliding down a dark alleyway near her apartment and removing her transformation. Tikki flies into her vest as Marinette pats herself down. Turning, her eye catches a figure standing at one end of the alley.

“Hello, My Lady,” A husky voice rings out through the walls.

“Chat Noir,” she twitches an eyebrow as she smirks. “Didn’t think you’d catch up.”

The black-cladded man stalks forward, neon green eyes flashing against the moonlit street behind them. A cheshire grin appears on his face as he comes closer and hovers over Marinette.

“I wasn’t trying to beat you, bugaboo.” He purrs, licking his lips. Though Marinette can’t see, she can feel his presence grow with intensity.

“Chat..,” she murmurs, stepping backward and feeling the cold wall when she presses her hand to find support. “I gotta get home, you know,” she remarks teasingly, while dragging a finger down his chest. “Gotta wake up early for work and everything.”

“Well,” Chat Noir slowly takes her hand, curling his fingers around it before laying a kiss on them. “I’m sure you can stay out for a few more minutes.” 

He chuckles lightly while his thumb traces the metal around Marinette’s finger before he leans even closer, breath ticking her cheek. The air around them grows balmy, despite the winter chill that lingers past its due. His other hand slowly finds its way down to her hip and he pulls her taut against him. She yelps, quietly with a smile, then presses her free hand against his chest next to the one he’d taken captive in his own.

“Chat…Adrien…,” she whispers, eyes closing as warm lips touch her own ever so lightly. “ _Chaton_ — “

“—YOU THERE!”

She pulls away. Another dark figure stands hunched over at the end of the alleyway, arms raised. Secretly, she wants to strangle the man for interrupting them but she catches the gleam of a gun in his hands and her eyes widen.

“Give me all your money!” the man gruffly commands. “This is loaded!”

It’s clear he hasn’t seen Chat Noir, whose costume had since upgraded to allow almost complete camouflage against the dark shadows of night. Even his blonde hair with its bright hue, is obscured by a shadow.

When he lays his forehead against her temple, she hears, no, _feels_ the growl emanating from her fiance’s chest. “Adrien,” she utters, only enough for both their ears. “no—.”

“Come on! Give it here! You and…whoever that is with you!” the mugger’s hands shake but he cocks the gun.

Chat Noir growls even louder.

“Chat Noir, don’t—,” Marinette hisses. “Let’s just…”

She wishes she could just do something. With Tikki out of energy, there’s no way she can transform. And it would be too dangerous to risk her identity. The mugger is holding a gun and she has no idea if Adrien’s suit will protect him. Especially if he were to be shot in the head.

Even if she knows she shouldn’t, her heart rate rises in worry.

“I promised I’d keep you safe,” Chat Noir assures her, all but breathing in her ear. “And no cat ever breaks his promise.”

He lets her go. Then, in one swift movement, Chat Noir leaps from his perch just as the gun fires into the air. Marinette almost screams but realizes he’s carrying her off up back onto the roof. The gun fires again and she feels the bullet whiz past her.

“The guy’s an idiot,” Chat Noir hisses as he puts her down well out of range. He quickly jumps back down and Marinette rushes forward to catch him seizing the mugger by the arms. He dispatches of the weapon, sending the gun careening onto the sidewalk only for two police officers approaching in a hurry to see it slide into a gutter. No doubt they’d heard the gunshots. When they reach mouth of the alleyway, they see the mugger being held up by the collar, a few bruises appearing on his face. Green eyes above him greet them in mirth.

“Chat Noir,” one of officers gasps. “You..?”

“Nothing to worry about officers,” he salutes them with a free hand. “Took care of things here. This guy tried to mug a poor lady of her money, and with an illegal firearm no doubt.”

The superhero points up to the roof where a silhouette of a woman could be seen peaking out from behind a barrier. It is a good thing they can’t really see her face.

The other officer huffs. “Well,” he says, taking out handcuffs. “I guess, we can take it from here then!”

Chat Noir gladly hands over the man to the police. He waits before he’s out of their line of sight before he leaps back up on the roof. There, Marinette stands, hands to her chest. She’s adorable, he thinks.

“So Mari,” he says out loud. “Where were we?” he approaches her, with a bit more sway in his hips.

Marinette can’t help but yawn. It must’ve been really late. So, a thought pops into her head.

Before Chat Noir can grab her again, Marinette lays a teasing finger on his chest to keep him at arm’s length. “Mari?”

She hates to discontinue their little affair, but her eyes have begun to drop. The entire day had drained her and what happened just awhile ago had oddly worsened the fatigue. But in a gesture of comfort, she lays her hand on Chat Noir’s shoulder before tiptoeing up to plant a chaste kiss on his slightly open lips. She quickly pulls back before he has another chance to grab her.

“Adrien, I was thinking.” Marinette scratches her cheek.

“Yes, My Lady?” Chat Noir tilts his head in a very cat-like manner.

“Maybe we could save _this_ …for the wedding night,” she suggests. Chat Noir’s ears perk up at her choice of words.

“Wait, but it’s not like—“

“I know, _chaton_ , but I promise that, on that day,” she leans up closer to him again and hovers her lips near his real ear.

“I will make it worth your wait,” she sighs against him.

He gasps as chills careen down his spine.

 

***

_Quatre._

A curse fires from under his breath as he runs across the Pont des Arts, holding nothing but his pen and a notebook. He wonders how he got himself into this mess, with a group of rabid, screaming women (and a few men) at his tail. He thought he’d outgrown this sort of thing when he’d quit the modeling business (he sometimes would pose for his wife to help her with her designs). But clearly some people had held on to his past. He groans. He should be at work, grading papers, making new lesson plans for his students. But today, he’s running for what is essentially his life.

“ADRIEN, COME BACK!” one of them screams out to him. He shakes his head. Of all the situations he finds himself in, this has probably got to be one of the most ironic. It had just so happened that he’d been waiting for a student who had asked to meet with him for some tutoring. But when the knock came and he opened the door, it took all of his Chat Noir-like reflexes to avoid getting swallowed by multiple pairs of arms.

How in the name of kwamis did they manage to get past security?

His thoughts grind to a halt when he finds himself trapped on both sides under the bridge. A crowd of people have since gathered on top and to his sides, taking photos and nearly blinding his eyes with the flashes. Why were they after him?

“Adrien Agreste! Please sign my cheek!” one fan screams, flailing a magazine in her hand. His eyes narrow at the sight.

Another cries out from the back of the crowd, “You’re so beautiful!”

He glares at nothing. There’s no way to transform, with everyone’s eyes on him. He raises his arms hoping to somehow slow the crowd down as they approach him. This is really dumb, he thinks.

Suddenly, a woman clad in red and black lands right under the bridge in front of them, her back turned to him. The crowd gasps and murmurs float through them.

“What’s going on here?” she yells, voice full authority and command. Goosebumps form on Adrien’s shoulders as the sound travels through his ears.

The crowd grows silent. Several seconds pass between them before Ladybug glares at the crowd and sighs.

“Well, if no one wants to say anything, I’ll be taking this man back. You all ought to leave him alone or else I will personally oversee a restraining order sent to all of you for essentially threatening this man’s life. Any objections?”

One woman tries to raise her hand but another bats it down. A wave of nods spreads throughout the crowd.

With a final squint of her eyes, Ladybug grabs Adrien and throws him on her back before bounding them off into the air. She sends her yoyo to and fro, randomizing her directions in order to stave off anyone dumb enough to follow them. While she is focused on finally bringing Adrien back to the school, he taps her on her armored shoulder.

“Thanks for the save there, bugaboo,” he tells her before brushing a kiss to her crown. “So, uh, you have any idea what just happened?”

Ladybug gives him a quick nod without looking at him. Before long, they’re on the roof of the school Adrien teaches in.

“I uh, well,” Ladybug stammers, blushing, a complete turnaround from her authoritative tone a few minutes ago. “The..uh, newest edition of the magazine I told you about was just released, and well,” she pulls out a copy from behind her. How she could do that, Adrien would always wonder.

When she opens the magazine and shows him, Adrien is met with images of himself in several ensembles, no doubt the work of his wife. His poses appear as if he had not even quit the business.

“Wait, but I thought—“

“I did tell you about this, _chaton.._ ,” Ladybug remarks. “..I asked if you could guest-model for my latest set of designs. You did say yes and you did come with me for the photography.”

Adrien takes a moment to think back at that point in time. He remembers sitting on the couch, checking his emails when Marinette had thrown the idea out at him. He’d simply agreed without taking his eyes off the screen. When they’d done the shoot, it was all he could do not to keep staring at his own wife while the director posed him. In retrospect, the job had come easy, no doubt from his past experience as a model under his father.

Well, he doesn’t blame her for what happened today, but showing his model face again in print had apparently triggered a set of unexpected yet oddly expected consequences. He just hopes that group never comes back again.

While Ladybug stares down at her feet, leafing through the pages while waiting for him to say something, Adrien closes the distance and tilts her head up to him. He leans forward, exhaling before placing a soft kiss on her lips. They linger for a few moments before he pulls back.

“What was that for?” Ladybug twitches an eyebrow at him.

“Oh, I can’t give my wife a kiss when I want to?” he chuckles in jest, eyes full of mirth.

“You’re not mad?” she asks him, crumpling the magazine in her hand.

“Nah, it’s fine. I have a whole childhood worth of fangirl experiences anyway. Besides you took care of the dirty work for me,” he notes with a smile.

Ladybug’s expression morphs as she saunters toward him. She raises her hand, brushing her fingers under his chin and it takes Adrien a lot of effort to stop himself from purring right then on the spot.

“Not all of the dirty work,” she winks at him with a knowing smile and eyes half-lidded.

If Adrien had been in his suit at that moment, his tail would be straight up right now.

“I’ll meet you back at home, _mon minou,”_ she smirks, her eyes gleaming. She turns her back before waltzing off, hips rolling, yoyo in hand.

Adrien blinks to see her gone. He pulls at his necktie and collar before deciding it was time to get back to his office. He still has another class to teach and that student could be waiting for him.

He’d need the distraction until he could finally go home.

When the student comes to visit, he apologizes profusely to him first, almost falling down at his feet. In his backpack, Adrien sees a copy of the magazine stuck out and rolled up.

That night, Marinette praises him for a job well done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:3c


	14. Under the Moonlight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Love always trusts
> 
> Enjoy!

He’s nervous. A quick look at his staff shows that he has a few more minutes before his wife is supposed to meet him on the roof of their apartment. He feels his belt-tail twitching in anticipation. His clawed fingers fiddle with his staff in hand. They had just finished another one of their patrols, which, since the defeat of Hawkmoth, have been particularly quiet. It had come to the point that patrols became simple excuses in order for them to spend even more time with each other until they were finally married.

But tonight is a special one, Chat Noir muses, and even if Marinette may have forgotten about it, he would certainly not. Thus, in an act of cheesy whim, he’d messaged her on her yoyo compact, asking her to meet him on their roof after making sure no potential snoops would tail her after patrol. She would arrive soon.

He waits.

His boot taps on pebbles.

A sudden wind chill sends goosebumps on his back as the clouds above clear to reveal a bright full moon against the black backdrop

Then, with a slight twitch, his cat ears pick up the sound of boots landing on gravel behind him. He spins on his heel, smile turning into a smirk. Producing a single rose from behind him, he offers it to the approaching woman.

“Why, my lady, you are looking absolutely stunning this evening,” Chat Noir declares when he hands over the rose to her. Stooping down on one knee, he takes her other hand, placing a loving kiss to her knuckles as he has always done.

Ladybug chuckles, holding the rose close to her chest. “Well, someone’s affectionate this evening,” she remarks. Before Chat Noir stands up, she pets and ruffles his hair. “Have a good patrol, kitty?”

He straightens, rubbing his own knuckles on his chest. “Of course, dearie,” he replies with a bow. “This cat has been satisfied. But what about his mate?”

His brow twitches.

“Someone’s a flirt today. Haven’t seen you like this since we got married.”

“It’s a special day, my lady. Time to celebrate!”

“Oh? What special day would entail a cat’s mating call?”

“Ouch, my lady, such cat-titude! But never fear, for this feline has a simple gift he wants to give you.”

Then, he steps out of her view, revealing a set of speakers and a phone sitting proudly on the floor of the roof. For a second, Ladybug stares at it curiously while Chat Noir shuffles behind her and places a hand on her shoulder.

“You’re giving me a sound system? What for?” she asks when Chat Noir coaxes her closer to the set-up.

“Not quite,” he laughs before drawing closer to her ear. “But this is for our anniversary, love.”

Ladybugtwitches an eyebrow. “But it hasn’t even been that long since our wedding.”

“The anniversary of our first meeting,” he clarifies with a wink.

Silent, she stares at him. Then, she asks, “wait, which one?”

Chuckling, he takes the rose from her and and lays it next to the speaker before answering, “Stoneheart.”

“Aw, not the gum thing?” Ladybug whines, jokingly.

“Well, if you want that celebrated too, I could _squeeze_ in something for this already meow-nificent night.”

As if on cue, his hand drifts down her back and past her waist before Ladybug slaps it away.

Giggling, she gives him a subtle wink. “Alright, down boy.”

“Just a suggestion,” Chat Noir shrugs.

“Oh don’t worry, _minou_. Just one thing at a time.”

“Ah, the anticipation has spiked. But, you’re right. One thing at a time, I suppose. Now..”

He steps ahead, peering at his phone and scrolling through a list of songs Ladybug can’t make out from the distance. Then, with a tap of his finger, music begins to permeate the open air, a hushed blend of piano and violin.

Approaching her, Chat Noir offers his hand to her.

She takes it.

Leading her to the center of the rooftop, his hand cradles her fingers in his. Around them, Paris seems to quiet, the city lights almost dimming to let the moon bathe the couple in its spotlight. Ladybug looks at her husband, seeing his green eyes soften, and she swears there is a glow bright against the deep color of his mask. They face each other, still hand in hand as the music transitions into a soft jazz. Chat Noir, Adrien, smiles and whispers to her.

“Ready?”

She nods.

His thumb brushes against the top of her hand before taking it and placing it gently on his shoulder. Even with the two layers of material between them, Marinette can feel currents passing through, intensifying when Adrien’s hand drifts to her waist, not going any further this time. He grips it.

Then, he steps forward. She takes a step back.

They start their movements at first, hesitant and shy. A few times, Marinette nearly steps on her partner’s feet and she murmurs apologies while Adrien chuckles. She blushes. In a tender gesture, he lightly tightens his hold to help her match him in step. The atmosphere infuses with the meandering melody. At certain points, he spins her, dips her and she follows through, hand gripping his. Laughter joins music; words of praise are shared between them.

They carry on the motions, pausing only to let the music transition to a new song. Then, they begin again, a bit faster this time as the song picks up in rhythm. A trumpet echoes into the night and their heartbeats synchronize. Many times, they come close enough to feel each other’s breath on their skin, short of coming together only to keep up the makeshift performance for their silent audience above. Without even realizing it, Marinette’s suited hand, once held by her husband, finds itself joining the other on Adrien’s shoulders.

The moon rejoices, the stars sing. The clouds have all since disappeared and Paris grows even quieter as the two lovers reach the final notes of the song.

Then, in a bold gesture, Adrien seals the distance between their chests and dips her just slightly before lowering the hand on her waist further down until he feels the smooth material on her thigh. Then, gripping it, he pulls her leg up to meet his hip and their foreheads meet.

The song comes to an end.

“Goodness,” Marinette chuckles. “Touchy.”

Adrien raises his eyebrow at her. “Well I’ve always wanted to do this,” he remarks with a grin.

“Haven’t you?” she gleams. Adrien can’t help but swoon at the short-haired woman in front of him. Her beauty is only magnified by the moon’s light.

“Well, in other ways. But this is special,” he replies to her as he continues to dip her closer to the ground. His lips brush against hers and his cat ears pick up the momentary gasp from under his wife’s breath.

“May I kiss you?”

“We’re married,” she points out.

“I know, but the question still stands,” he smirks at her endearingly. There is sparkle in her eyes.

While returning his smile, Marinette brings her hands to his cheeks, fingers skimming the edge of his mask.

She closes the gap between them with such passion, their silent audience sighs.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This piece is based on this drawing I made on whim --> https://qookyquiche.tumblr.com/post/159570045265/it-takes-two-to-tango-u-chat-noirs-teaching
> 
> Some pieces of music that gave the vibe I wanted for this :D
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-24xSWuwvE  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpfjFRSD2wo  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBeqFizRpC4  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED1B39W9b0E


	15. Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Love always hopes.
> 
> To be honest though, this drabble doesn't seem too relevant at first glance. But there is something in there.
> 
> Also, it's ML Angst Week apparently, and I managed to chalk this up in less than 5 hours. Yey :)

He cradles the little boy in his arms, tears streaming down his face. Around them, fog blankets most of the deserted streets of Paris. He calls for help, his miraculous since having run out of power. Plagg curls up on his shoulder, weak and desperate. When Adrien looks down, the little boy, no older than four, reaches out to him, fingers wide. Adrien stares toward the horizon in confusion, faintly making out the shape of a woman lying motionless on the street. His eyes widen in panic but he can’t seem to move his limbs. His body does not obey him, instead choosing to press the broken boy further into his chest. The boy strains to reach up to him with one arm. Adrien takes it, the stream of tears never-ending in his eyes.

It’s odd. He doesn’t know who the boy is but the face looks undoubtedly familiar. The eyes are as blue as the sky, only dulled by fatigue and Adrien can’t help but compare them to those of his lifelong partner. Where was she anyway?

Pale against the asphalt, the boy whimpers and groans. Adrien searches for a source of pain, to no avail. So, to calm him down, he rubs his hand against the boy’s shoulders and back, hoping to warm him up against the cold, clammy air. He then pulls him even closer, up near his collar and wraps one of his arms around his own neck for support.

“It’s going to be alright big guy,” He tells the boy as he curls himself up around him in a protective gesture. “You just hang in there. Help will come.”

He can’t help but add an “I hope,” at the end, against his choking sobs.

Feebly, the boy turns to look at him, eyes glazed. He coughs loudly against Adrien’s nape and then sniffs. His eyes begin to close and his breathing weakens, but after minutes of silence, the boy finally murmurs.

“Pa..pa..”

A hulking figure overshadows them from the fog.

***

Adrien shoots up from his bed panting in cold sweat. One hand reaches to where he remembers the weight of a child against his shoulder. The other hand grips the sheets tightly. He realizes his breathing has shallowed, and he nearly wheezes when he feels a dull ache in his chest. The window is noticeably open, a chilly breeze floating into their bedroom. But the only light in his room is coming from the moon reflecting its gaze against the shutters.

He takes a deep breath, trying to alleviate the erratic heartbeat that he suddenly feels pounding against his ribcage. Moaning, he gets up from the bed, dragging his feet towards the bathroom. When he checks behind him, he finally spots the shape of his wife curled up underneath the covers. Just the sight of her relaxes him a little. She is so peaceful, no doubt unaware of the nightmare he had just experienced.

Finally reaching the sink, Adrien finds himself looking into the mirror and recognizing the tired expression in his own eyes. He sighs and bends down towards the sink, taking another deep breath. Eventually, he catches sight of Plagg slowly approaching him from behind.

“You alright, kid?” the kwami asks him.

Adrien sighs, choosing to wash his face first before answering the black cat.

“To be honest, Plagg, I’m not sure,” he replies.

Plagg floats closer, before sitting on his chosen’s shoulder.

“Uh..what are you doing—?”

His question is interrupted when Plagg begins to purr.

“It’s 3am in the morning, boy. You don’t usually wake up this early.”

Adrien’s face scrunches up in thought. He bobs his head.

“And _you’re_ usually a deep sleeper. How did you know I was awake?” he asks him dolefully.

“I could sense a spike in the air. You were distressed.”

The man raises his eyebrow, but chooses not to say anything.

Taking the silence as a response, Plagg asks him. “So…you wanna talk about it?”

“Since when did you wanna talk about my problems?” Adrien grunts. The purring comes to a halt.

“Hey, don’t be rude. All the time, man.”

Adrien gives him a blank stare.

“All right all right,” Plagg relents. “So I don’t find a lot of your stories that entertaining. That doesn’t mean I don’t care though, you got that?”

His chosen remains silent, keeping his gaze to the mirror. Reluctantly, Plagg pats him with his paw then floats up, tail sweeping the air.

“I’ll head back to the alcove now. You sure you don’t need to vent?”

Adrien nods.

Plagg shrugs and sighs. “Well, I’ll be expecting Camembert in the morning,” the kwami cackles. “You owe me for waking me up this early.”

He flies off. Adrien chuckles under his breath before shaking his head and washing his face. Sweat since dried up, he decides to go back to bed, hoping that his dreams would not be mired with such visions in this next attempt to sleep.

When he sits on the mattress to lay down, Marinette stirrs.

“Adrien?” she whispers, sleepily.

He tenses up. Fear takes a hold of him, wishing that his wife would simply go back to sleep after that. The nightmare still plays in his mind. Contrary to his silent wishes, Marinette slowly gets up and shifts towards him at the edge of the bed, kneeling on the covers. She places a gentle hand at the center of his back, her skin glowing against the cool moonlight.

“You ok, Adrien?” she asks him.

He looks at her and for a few seconds, he simply admires what he sees: all the strength, intellect, and love that he had fallen for, wrapped up in this petite woman in a nightgown. Yet, he can’t bring himself to tell her what exactly he had seen in his dream. So, he simply goes for a vague answer.

“I had a nightmare,” he replies.

Marinette nods slowly, clearly still feeling the effects of deep sleep in her eyes. “Wanna to tell me what happened?” she adds.

Adrien shakes his head. “Don’t worry about it, love. I’m fine.”

His wife decides not to pry any further, instead unfolding her legs until the bottom halves touch the floor below them. She scoots closer to him, stroking her hand against her husband’s back. Then, steadily, she takes his arm to wrap it around her shoulder, pulling herself against him. She leans her head, ignoring the very faint scent of sweat coming off him, and nuzzles her nose near his collarbone.

“Well, if there’s anything you need to talk about, I’m right here anytime ok?” she offers.

Adrien bows to the side, placing a kiss against her hair.

“Eventually, my lady. I just…need time that’s all.”

“”All right.”

Then, without thinking about it, Adrien’s chest begins to rumble. Even after many years, the impromptu purring doesn’t fail to trigger slight blushes in his face. But Marinette just smiles and pushes more against his side and chest, wrapping her other arm around his abdomen.

“We should go back to sleep,” she suggests, tugging on his shirt a bit.

After a few silent seconds, Adrien grunts in approval. They soon find themselves underneath the duvet, limbs tangled around each other. Adrien grips her tightly, afraid to let go. He breathes in her scent, mouthing a few words of affection as he continues to purr. Without replying back, Marinette simply nudges her face further against his chest as they lay on the soft pillows and cushions. The vibrations of his purring echoes in the room.

They whisper to each other goodnight. Adrien knows he'll have to talk to her about this eventually. 

But tonight, he sleeps for the rest of the evening, curled peacefully around his wife and hoping the nightmare doesn't return.

It doesn't stop the wounds from pulsing faintly in his heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This actually takes place before Adrien and Marinette adopt Emma.
> 
> Adrien still has some issues.
> 
> (Just in case it's not clear, the boy is simply a figment)


	16. Free Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Love always perseveres
> 
> Every marriage has its road bumps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to be less fluffy and more angsty/hurt/comfort. Not sure how well I fared though.  
> Also, there are so many scene changes here compared to my other drabbles, so just a heads-up.
> 
> So glad to be able to update again after so long in academic heck!

You’ve so busy lately, Adrien,” Tikki pipes up as she floats beside his ear. The man doesn’t budge, instead focusing on the papers in front of him which have yet to be marked. He groans, pinching the bridge of his nose as he reads the first paragraph of his student’s research paper.

Suffice to say, the writing is atrocious.

“Yes, I have, Tikki,” Adrien mutters in reply as he begins to scribble his comments. His wife’s kwami pats him on his hair. “It’s just been a particularly busy month. Now, these papers won’t check themselves,” he adds.

“Is Marinette ok with you staying up this late?” Tikki asks curiously.

Adrien looks at her, then checks his watch. It’s a little past twelve in the morning, and while he’d love to be in bed with Marinette at this moment, he has deadlines to meet. Admittedly, deadlines he set himself.

“Yeah, she knows what I’m dealing with,” he assures the kwami. “I just..want to finish these already. I mean it’s date night tomorrow so I’ll definitely be trying to have as little as I need to do during the day.”

“Won’t you be tired though?” Tikki points out as she nestles herself on Adrien’s blonde locks. “You should be getting some sleep.”

Adrien lightly shakes his head, careful not to dislodge her. “I want to bring these to my students tomorrow. They clearly have a lot to work to do on these. Besides-“ he makes a big circle on one paragraph and writes notes next to it. “-we’re used to late nights remember?”

“Well, yes,” Tikki says as she yawns. “But that’s when you two are Chat Noir and Ladybug. Plagg tells me you don’t do well with lack of sleep.”

Adrien chuckles. His own kwami is right. Unless they were patrolling, Adrien’s sleep patterns kept consistent. His father had taught him to keep a regular sleeping schedule if he wanted to remain healthy.

“Don’t worry about it, Tikki. I’ll be fine,” he assures her.

There’s no response as the ladybug falls asleep on his head.

Adrien takes another sip of his coffee before diving back to his work, making sure not to wake her.

***

Marinette taps her foot as she stands in the middle of the living room with her phone on her ear. He’s late, she realizes, glancing at the wall clock. Adrien had agreed to come home early, so that they could make it to their reservation at Restaurant Lasserre on time. They’d been planning on this day for weeks, since they’d rarely been able to find time to spend with each other during the day.

Finally, the phone picks up, and Marinette is immediately met with a series of apologies from the man on the other line.

“Mari, oh my goodness, I’m so sorry!” Adrien pleads. “They announced this really important meeting with the higher-ups last minute and I couldn’t just cancel. I think there’s something going on with the school, but I won’t know until I’m there.”

Marinette frowns at her husband’s words, but lets him continue.

“I’m truly sorry, Marinette, but I don’t think I can make it to date night tonight.”

There were the words she’d suddenly been anticipating.

She shakes her head, and Tikki glances at her in worry. Marinette sighs, before reassuring Adrien.

“It’s fine, _chaton_. I get it. I’ll just…cancel the reservation.” she mutters.

“Oh..really? Thanks, I guess. Well, I mean we could go on another day. And I promise I’ll make it a better date.”

Marinette nods, remaining as stoic as possible.

“Yeah, all right, Adrien. I’ll hold it to you.”

“Great. Now ok, I gotta go. They’re calling me. Hugs and kisses, and make sure Plagg doesn’t eat the Camembert in the fridge.”

On cue, Plagg pops up from Marinette’s shoulders. She chuckles when he asks about the cheese.

“Bye Adrien, I’ll see you at home. Love ya.”

The connection shifts to dial tone.

Looking at her phone, Marinette frowns again and sighs, before typing in the number of the restaurant to cancel their reservation.

The two kwami regard each other.

***

When Adrien arrives home, there is no one in the living room. The kitchen lights are open and a bowl of French onion soup has been left for him to eat. He groans softly, no doubt knowing he’s home much later than he had originally planned on. Hopefully Marinette is still awake, he thinks.

Emma meows sleepily at him as he walks past the couch, earning a pet on the way.It doesn’t take long to finish the bread and he quickly washes and puts away the remaining dishes before shutting off the lights. He places his bag on the couch on the other side of the white cat before going into the bedroom.

As he dresses down, he sees the sleeping shape of his wife underneath the covers. Sighing, he gets into bed, giving Marinette a light kiss before tucking himself in and falling asleep.

Marinette turns around and embraces him from behind.

***

A week passes and yet Adrien is unable to find time to spend with Marinette considering the school’s situation. While at his desk, checking revised papers in his office, Adrien receives a text on his phone. It’s Marinette, and she wants to patrol tonight. Something about a sketchy feeling, she says. He eyes the message curiously and glances at the clock. There’s a few more hours left before it’s time to leave.

Going back to the papers, he reads the next one. An improvement, he thinks, but his students will be getting these back for another set of revisions.They’ll need their best work for their final papers.

With a yawn, he begins writing notes on them once again.

 

The clock stops sticking after an hour.

***

As Adrien finishes marking the last paper, he looks up at his wall. There’s still an hour and a half left, according to the clock, and he twitches his eyes curiously before double-checking with his watch.

He gasps.

It’s 9pm and way past the time to meet Marinette. He groans as he realizes he’d left Plagg back at the apartment so there’s no way he can just hop right out of the office as Chat Noir. Besides, the campus is filled with security cameras

He rushes out of the room in record time.

***

Groaning against her pillow, Marinette flops onto the couch. Once again, her husband is a no-show and out of frustration, she had gone ahead and patrolled her route in under an hour with civilians none the wiser. Plagg glares at the window, no doubt just as irritated as she is. His tail sweeps the air.

In Adrien’s stead, Plagg had begrudgingly offered to patrol for him. But, to their luck, the Parisian streets were quiet and Ladybug chose to let any minor occurrences be dealt with by the local police. She’d kept to the shadows so as not to alert any of the civilians. Whatever suspicious feeling she had had initially disappeared.

A sound of keys jingling on the other side of their door startles her out of her thoughts, if only for a second. She’d locked the door before she left and forgotten to open it.

Adrien walks into the apartment in heavy pants, immediately dropping his bag on the floor without putting it on the side.He looks at her, alarmed, and she watches him with a blank expression.

“Marinette, I’m so sorry!” he says, in between breaths. “I-I-my clock broke and I got so focused on my work I didn’t check my watch and I-,” he slouches in defeat. “I’m really sorry.”

Hearing his words, Marinette gets up, but doesn’t come near him. Instead, she gives him a sidelong glance before looking at Plagg. The kwami sighs, and she turns around to face her husband.

“It’s fine, Adrien,” she shrugs. “Nothing happened anyway. Patrol was uneventful.”

Adrien knits his eyebrows.

“I’m heading for bed now,” Marinette announces after a few seconds of silence. “So, I mean, if you could just finish up around here, that would be great.”

He peers at her, but as she walks past him, Adrien reaches out and takes a hold of her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. She doesn’t look at him, but then makes no move to wrench herself out his grip.

“Marinette, maybe I can make it up to you tonight?” he asks her, loosening his grip and gently sliding his hand down her arm. Marinette can’t help but feel goosebumps at his touch. “There are nice restaurants still open at this hour if you’re hungry. Or maybe a pub?”

He bends down, laying a chaste kiss just below her eye and a breath near her ear. “Or..maybe you want something else?”

Marinette’s expression doesn’t change. She shakes her head, prompting Adrien to back up a bit.

“Sorry, Adrien. Not tonight. I’m really tired and I’m sure you are too.” Then she finally looks at him with silent, cold eyes. Within a second, she’s brushing past him.

Adrien sighs as Marinette disappears into the bedroom, shutting the door. He mentally kicks himself before Plagg lands a heavy foot against his temple.

“Ow!” Adrien cries in a whisper. “What was that for?”

“Good job, kid.” he tells him sarcastically.”I’d yell at you but I’m pooped. Time for this cat to get some shut-eye. Oh, don’t bother asking to go on patrol tonight. I already did it for you and I’m exhausted.”

He flies off, leaving Adrien alone in the living room with his increasingly rampant thoughts.

***

For the next week, Marinette barely speaks to him. Granted, he’s not home most of the day and his wife has her own work to deal with. But since he’d missed their patrol, Marinette had not asked or declared to do another one. With Adrien’s current state of luck, it wouldn’t have mattered if she did. He missed dinner a few more times, came home with wrong groceries, and while he wasn’t sure, Adrien could’ve sworn his walking had become a bit more wobbly.

Sometimes being a teacher sucked.

Rubbing his eye, Adrien locks his phone again and groans against his hands. Tikki flies up next to his ear.

“I told Marinette I’d keep an eye on you at work today,” Tikki remarked, voice soft and kind, a far cry from his recently grumpy kwami. “She noticed you weren’t looking so good.”

“Really Tikki? Seems like Marinette’s not exactly happy with me right now,” Adrien moans. “Why would she care at the moment?”

“Well, I can’t say she is happy either,” Tikki chides. “Adrien, you’re her partner. Of course she cares. She knows you’re tired, but Marinette’s also just…going through a lot right now too.”

“Well, so am I. I mean look at this stuff.” Adrien snaps, waving his hands over the papers. Tikki frowns at him.

“Sorry,” Adrien flinches.

“Have you tried moving your schedule around?” Tikki asks, her vexation quickly disappearing.

“Has Marinette?” Adrien can’t help the irritation in his voice, and Tikki gives a rare, pointed glare.

“Look dear, you both are busy,” Tikki remarks, placing her paws on her tiny hips. “I am a kwami, I can’t tell you what to do with each other, but I suggest you both take the time to talk about this. Maybe this will all pass, but I hate seeing you two so quiet. You’re usually bantering or being as Plagg calls it, “sappily in love”. Plus you two haven’t donned the ears and spots for awhile.

Adrien frowns, the weight of that notion suddenly getting heavier.

“Yeah, you’re right, TIkki. I know this will pass. I just need a few more days to finish this. I’m sure Marinette will understand?”

Tikki looks plaintively towards the window. “I don’t know Adrien. She said it doesn’t bother her, but I think she misses your company.” She turns to him again. “Please, just talk to her.”

Adrien gazes at the fairy, before he finally nods.

“All right. I’ll… tell her we can patrol tomorrow night.”

Tikki hums against his hair, appeased for the time.

***

Marinette sighs in relief for the first time in a few weeks.Her husband has asked to patrol and she’s at home all ready to go. He tells her he’ll meet her at the Notre Dame so there’s no use to wait. Yet, when she looks at the watch on her wrist, a feeling of mischief bubbles in her chest. He’s been late or absent almost every time, so maybe she should try to give him the same treatment. She runs her idea with Tikki, who responds with a defiant no, citing pettiness in Marinette’s part. The woman shrugs off her kwami’s advice anyway and takes her time in the shower, leaving her kwami to buzz in irritation before being called to put on the spots.

***

As Chat Noir lands on top of the landmark church, a thought appears in his mind. One thing they had not done in a long time was spar and, judging from the way his wife had been testy for the last couple of weeks, she could have used some time to cool off. An idea takes hold as he waits for Marinette. However, as the city begins to settle down for the night, he realizes she’s taking her time. He hears her land almost effortlessly onto the cobblestone and decides not to bring it up.

“Good evening, My Lady. Lovely night, isn’t it?” He takes a bow.

“Oh, Chat Noir, you’re early,” Ladybug remarks, arms crossed. “That’s new.”

He tries hard not to react at her clear attempt to rile him up and begins shuffling forward until he is within a foot of her space.

“Well, I did say I’d make it up to you. Unfortunately, I do not have the means at this moment for a nice quiet dinner at a nice Parisian restaurant, but would a patrol suffice for tonight?”

Ladybug eyes him thoughtfully.

“…Or,” he adds, before taking her arm in his hand and gently brushing his fingers against her suit-covered skin. “We could spar.”

Ladybug flinches, gently taking her arm away. She stares at him.

“A spar…?” she asks him, clearly surprised at his suggestion.

Chat Noir shrugs and suddenly, the words stagger in his tongue. “Well, I-I figured you know, let off some steam? You’ve been stressed and so have I and…well…I thought it would be good for both of us to take it out somewhere?”

“You’re kidding…,” she begins to glare at him. “You’re asking your own wife to vent by hitting you and vice versa?”

“W-Well, I mean we’ve sparred before! It’s nothing new right? Wouldn’t be like we’re trying to hurt each other.”

“But we haven’t done that since…,” she glances at the gargoyles. Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember the last time they’d sparred. Since Hawkmoth had been defeated, the amount of supernatural happenings and crimes had declined drastically, leaving no chance for any new “crime-fighting moves” as Chat Noir would come to call it. There had rarely been needed use of the Lucky Charm, for one thing.

“See? We haven’t done it in awhile so we can always try it now! Besides, I think I need to move around a bit more than just running. I’ve been sitting at desks too much.” For added emphasis, Chat Noir rolls his shoulders and swings his arm around.

Ladybug mulls his suggestion over with a frown before finally looking at him again. Hesitant, she nods in agreement.

“Fine, but who gets to deal the first blow?”

Chat Noir bows once more. “Remember,” he winks with a smirk. “Ladies first?”

His partner gives him a deadpan look and a raised eyebrow.

***

With a solid kick to his chest, Chat Noir finds himself flying into a wall atop the Notre Dame. He slams into it and groans, looking up to see Ladybug rushing at him with her fingers tucked into a fist. He parries her hand off before pushing her away.

“Mari-,” he stops himself before saying her full name out loud. “-Ladybug! Wow, you’re definitely venting now, aren’t you?” He ducks right as she makes another swipe at him. “Are you feeling better?”

She remains silent, face scrunched up in a grimace as she attempts to land one more blow at him. His attempt to humor doesn’t faze her. While their suits are indestructible and there would be no lasting damage, the pain from her hits still resonate in his being so he tries to avoid her attacks as much as he can. Ladybug proves to be much more agile than he is, no doubt due to her small frame and powerful lithe muscles. He manages to fend off another kick and lands a punch to her shoulder. Yet he dares not to truly harm her so he lightens his strength. Unfortunately, Ladybug doesn’t seem to think the same way as she throws more and harder hits at him. He finds himself cornered against an overlooking gargoyle.

Before long, her foot meets his cheek and it brings him sprawling on the cobbled floor. “Ow,” he manages to moan.

“Hey,” she calls out to him before he can ask. “You suggested we spar. And we’re sparring.”

“Yeah, but,” Chat Noir rubs his cheek where she’d hit him. “Goodness, my lady, either I’m out of shape or something is really bugging you.” He can’t help but smirk nervously. He had a feeling he knew what her problem was anyway. He was simply giving her a chance to admit it.

He’s met with another glare. Before she can make another move, he musters up enough strengthto sweep his feet across where Ladybug stands, knocking her onto her back. He lunges at her, but she quickly fends him off with a push of her feet against his core. Air escapes from his lungs and he’s back on the floor again, winded. Staggering up, he faces her, panting hard, and waits for another attack.

It doesn’t come.

A shadow casts across her face despite her short bangs. She is not looking at him, and her shoulders shudder. A quick second rolls by and he thinks he sees a tear fall from her cheek.

“My Lady…,” he approaches her carefully. “Are you…?”

Then once again, he finds himself on the floor. This time, his wife’s hand is wrapped around his throat. Horror floods his face.

“Whoa! M-Marinette!” He cries out quietly so no one else hears him. His voice chokes anyway by the hand on his windpipe. “Wha-what are you doing?!”

The grip tightens and for a few seconds, Chat Noir begins to fear for his life. He’s too tired to fend her off, especially with recent lack of sleep he’d been experiencing so he’s at his wife’s mercy now. Yet, he knows. Marinette would not do this. Ladybug would not do this. So what-?

…the grip loosens at once.

Then, he hears sobbing.

“My-…Ladybug. Bugaboo. Are you feeling all right? Please tell me I didn’t hurt you-“

She slumps over where she straddles him between her legs. Tears begin streaming down her face and she attempts to wipe them away.

“Chat..Adrien. I-I’m sorry. I went too far. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“No, what, my Lady!” He wants to get up. He wants to hug her and comfort her, to rub his hands down her cold, trembling shoulders. The sparring had clearly done what he’d intended it to. To let her take out her unspoken frustrations on him. But she’s not telling him what’s wrong. And now all he wants to do is be there for his wife, unlike all of those other times, he contemplates guiltily.

“My Lady,”

“I shouldn’t have been this upset with you, _chaton_. I knew you were so busy and yet I got upset because you weren’t-“

“Whoa, hold up!” Chat Noir stops her from where he lays, taking her wrist from where it’s wrapped around her abdomen. “Ladybug, Bugaboo. This is _my_ fault. I wasn’t there for you. I mean, come on. I missed so many dinners. I came home late. I missed patrol for crying out loud!”

His partner falls silent but he keeps his grip on her wrist before placing the hand on his chest.

“…why did you do this?” She asked him after a few seconds of pause. “Why did you let me hurt you?”

“Well, first of all, these suits are practically invincible so I wasn’t worried about any permanent damage. Second, I knew you were angry with me. With the way you tried to play the same tactic I was using unintentionally, I thought, maybe this could be a way for you to finally get even. And…maybe give you a chance to tell me what’s wrong?”

Then, Ladybug moves, placing her forehead against his solid chest.

“Well, you kind of admitted it already, _chaton,_ ” she whispers.

“Ah, right.”

She keeps her head against his chest but turns it so that one cheek is laying against it. “You…weren’t there. I mean, yes, I was busy. But I tried to find time to spend with you despite all of that but you just never showed up. You were always late or you always had to pass or some other excuse. I was mad yes. I mean, I really missed you. Yeah, you’d go to bed and we’d cuddle sometimes, but you were always too tired to talk and-,” her shoulders shake a bit, attempting to bite back tired tears.

Ladybug sniffs, but Chat Noir attempts to wipe a stray drop away with the hand closest to her face.

“Is this normal?…for married people?” she asks him.

Chat Noir lightly shrugs his shoulders. Despite the cobblestones, he’s finding himself more and more comfortable with them just laying there together on the Notre Dame roof. The sky is clear, the stars finding their way to shine against the light pollution below. He mulls over her question and thinks back to his own family.

He chooses to answer her question with a thoughtful hum. “Maybe.”

Ladybug sighs, relaxing more against him. “…I’m so tired, Adrien…and it’s not just because of the sparring,” she manages to chuckle.

He laughs with her. They’re both exhausted.

“By the way,” she adds, peeking up at him. “I’m really sorry about hitting you hard in the face..and the chest…and the-“

“It’s ok, milady.” He tells her, patting her shoulder before rubbing it comfortingly. “I knew what I was going to get. I was ready.”

Ladybug frowns. “…. _Minou_ , why do you do this to yourself?”

“What do you mean?”

“Always putting yourself in harm’s way. Even against me,” she looks away from him again.

“Uh, we did have this discussion before, but I suppose we have time now for another one?” he shrugs.

She regards him thoughtfully before relaxing again. “…Well, maybe not _now_. Another time I suppose.”

A loud yawn escapes her, earning another laugh from her husband.

“Sleepy?” he asks in mirth.

“Yeah.”

Chat Noir finds himself infected by her yawn, opening his mouth with a deep breath. “You wanna head home now?” he suggests.

“Well, we can’t exactly stay and have priests finding us up here, so that’s a yes.”

He grunts in agreement, and readies to get up. But before he can do it, Ladybug shifts and lays her head against his shoulder, practically pinning him back. She grips the material of his suit as much as she can and takes a deep breath, inhaling his scent. On cue, he embraces her, placing one hand against the back of her head and the other around her torso, shrinking any remaining distance between them. He holds her there for a few more minutes, knowing that once they’re out of their suits, they’ll be heading straight to bed.

“I love you, _chaton_. Thank you for this. But, let’s not do it again please.”

He closes his eyes, nods then sighs, burying his face against her hair. Sleep begins to grip at him despite the power of their magical suits, prompting him to nudge his wife off so he may get up. Taking her hand, he pulls her against him before leaping up from the Notre Dame and sending his baton down to bring them closer and closer back home.

***

When they arrive and de-transform, Tikki poses to kindly berate Marinette for her actions before Adrien pokes her lightly on the back.

“It’s all right Tikki.”

The red kwami looks at Adrien with raised eyebrows. Marinette smiles, thankful, before walking away. Tikki thrums before flying closer to him and hugging him on the nose.

“Thank you, Adrien. I’m glad you were able to help Mari. But…”

“—Yes, I know. No more potentially life-threatening sparring matches.”

“Well yes, but just..you could’ve just sat down and talked, you know?”

Adrien shrugs, watching as Marinette heads for their bedroom to change. “Hey, you know me. I’m Adrien “Always Dramatic” Agreste.”

“Well, you definitely match your kwami,” Tikki jokes, earning a complaint from Plagg up at the alcove.

“Hmph, they’re both dramatic,” the black kwami adds disdainfully.

She gives him an unseen deadpan look. “You all are.”

Adrien laughs, harder than he had in weeks before kissing Tikki goodnight on the forehead. He follows Marinette to the bedroom and soon enough, they’re under the covers, holding each other close, just like they had back at the Notre Dame.

“Are we going to be ok, Adrien?”

“Hm? Of course, why would you wonder about that?”

“I did ask if this sort of thing is normal with marriages.”

He sighs. “Mari, it’s not like our new form of partnership was ever always going to be flowers and honey. Your parents fought right?”

Marinette nods against the moonlight.

“And they’re still fine and love each other! Bugaboo, we’ve been together for ten years now. We’ve fought before, that’s nothing new. Being married, that’s honestly a formality at this point with us.”

She doesn’t respond to his comment, though her satisfaction with his answer shows with the way she grips him tighter and nuzzles her faces against his chest once more. She hums sleepily in agreement.

“On that note,” Adrien chimes in, prompting Marinette to look up in curiosity. “Do you want to go to Restaurant Lasserre this Friday? Since…you know, we didn’t get to last time?”

She pauses, before nodding again, her eyes already closed as sleep begins to take her. “You will show up on time this time right?”

Adrien smiles, before placing a kiss on top of his wife’s head.

“I promise.”

 

And this time, he keeps it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was the final prompt guys! I am officially done with this drabble series (and this semester oh my goodness)! I'm so happy. Now I can decide if I want to build up more for this AU. I do have some outlines written.
> 
> If you guys don't know it yet, this entire prompt series was based off a passage in 1 Corinthians 13 (verses 4-7).
> 
> "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
> 
> I took each aspect and used it as a prompt to depict snippets of Marinette and Adrien's married life, at least as much as I could interpret it. It's quite ideal but it's something I wish people would aim for in their own partnerships.
> 
> Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this last bit and I'm so glad you guys have been following this AU of mine. Many thanks <3


	17. Winding Down

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From a Fluff Ask prompt :)
> 
> Like I said earlier when I posted this on Tumblr, this got ahead of me and I was blushing like a freaking ladybug. Or gumamela. Whatever
> 
> I wrote this on the plane xD

Another gala over.

Marinette sighed as she flopped back onto the bed, tossing her shoes to one side of their bedroom. Adrien sat to her right, equally exhausted, but choosing to remove his own shoes more carefully than his wife had done.

“Well, it’s what you get when you’re a big name in the fashion industry.” He remarked with a smirk.

Marinette peered at Adrien against the duvet. “Aren’t you tired of this though? I mean your father would drag you to those events all the time.”

“You get used to it after awhile. Trust me.” 

She saw him shimmy out of his trousers before he got up to drape them over the chair. Underneath, he was wearing a pair of simple boxer briefs. He’d started to unbutton his shirt when Marinette let out a soft hum. Adrien quirked an eyebrow at her.

“See something you like?” he teased.

Marinette rolled onto to her chest, ignoring the way her gown folded uncomfortably against her. Her feet kicked playfully in the air, while she tapped a finger on her chin.

“Hmm,” she paused. “Carry on.” Marinette batted her hand in the air playfully at him.

Adrien gave her a quick chuckle before continuing to unbutton the front of his shirt. Then, he stopped right at the second to last one.

“I’m starting to think you only married me for my looks, My Lady.”

Marinette failed to hold back a snort before she sat up. “Oh no, you caught me! I’m such a shallow partner, only hitching with a guy cuz he’s handsome.” For added emphasis, she placed a hand in her cheek for feigned surprise.

Adrien laughed, much more than he’d done all night. He walked up to his wife before kneeling down and taking both her hands in his.

“I’d say the same but you know I married you for much more than that, beautiful.”

He kissed both her knuckles.

“Well, I’m glad that party hasn’t drained you of your capacity for smooth talk.”

“Of course not,” he pointed out. “In fact, I was building it up for tonight.”

“Oh, tonight you say?”

“Unless you were planning on sleeping after that party. The alcohol will do that, I suppose.” Adrien began to stand up with an increasingly blank look.

Marinette took her hands from his and pulled his face to hers before he could fully straighten out, so that he was bending almost uncomfortably close to her. She gave him a peck on the nose then let him go.

“You better have something amazing planned, chaton. You’re a little…overdressed though, I think.” She gestured her finger up and down.

“Oh, you don’t think I look incredible in this?” Adrien asked, stepping back before pointing at the two buttons still left to be undone, his boxer briefs, and his socks. He gave her a sly grin while he turned around as if he was on the runway.

“MInou, you do look incredible in that, and everything else.” Then, she beckoned him to her. He followed her call and shifted forward before stopping right in front of her.

“But,” Marinette added as she brought his hands up to his front to fiddle with a button. “I think you’d look better tonight without any of it.”

“My Lady, your words are magic to my ears.”


	18. Would You...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I watched this movie called _Our Souls At Night_ and it inspired me to write this quick drabble cuz I started thinking things. Enjoy!
> 
> Edit: Listen to this song for additional feels :> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axnQugFtB0g

“Hey, Adrien? You awake?”

Groaning softly, he squints his eyes as Marinette’s voice pulls him away from the tendrils of sleep. Shifting on his bed, Adrien turns around to face his wife. The air is quiet around them. There is no moon tonight and heavy clouds shield the stars from sight, blanketing their bedroom in complete darkness.

“Hmm? What’s up?” He ask blearily.

“I was just...wondering,” Marinette begins in a whisper, and he can feel her warmth radiating from her body as she snuggles closer to him under the duvet.

“Yes?” He opens his eyes a little wider as they adjust to the black in their room. There’s a tinge of gloom in her voice.

“Uh...I was thinking, wondering…” She pauses briefly, a quick bite of the lip that Adrien knows so well by now. “What would you do if I die…and you’re still here?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Like...maybe…?” Marinette tugs on the covers. “When we grow old and our kids aren’t around anymore and have their own kids and I dunno...I mean everyone dies right? I guess...I just thought…”

“What I would do if you’re the first to go?”

He doesn’t need to hear her affirmation as she nods against his pillow. Shutting his eyes, he nudges his head closer to hers so her hair just brushes against his lips. “I’m not sure to be honest. I never really thought about it that much.”

Marinette doesn’t respond, but tugs her legs a bit closer to her, grazing slightly against his knee.

“But...you know?” Adrien adds as he slips his hand on top of hers, caressing her palm with his thumb. “Between the both of us, I’d be the one to go first, not you.”

“O-oh _chaton_ , don’t say that…”

“I mean, considering how many times I’ve nearly died in my lifetime, there’s a limit somewhere to that, right? I am the black cat after all. Unlucky and all that.”

Marinette pushes her head forward until she meets his collar of his shirt. She frowns against him, shaking her head.

“No, Adrien. I won’t let that happen if I have anything to say about it, you know that.”

He chuckles lightly, before pressing a kiss to his wife’s hair. “I know and I’m grateful for that, my lady. But to answer your question, since that probably was off-topic.”

“Hm?”

“I’d...just live my life I guess. Do the best I can? Help people around me?”

“Oh…” For some reason, Marinette’s voice wavers. Adrien swallows, wondering if he’d said something wrong, or if she’d fallen asleep.

“You think you’d...find someone else?” she finally asks him after a long period of silence.

So that’s why.

Adrien purses his lips before sighing. “I don’t know, Mari. To be honest,” he says as he drags his hand up to cup his wife’s cheek. “I don’t know if I could.”

“How come?” she asks him, as she threads her fingers through his.

“Well...you’ve always been the one, Marinette. I’ve..never actually fallen in love with anyone else. And I mean really fallen in love. Sure I had crushes and I loved Ladybug first before knowing it was you, but when I found out who you were, it just...made everything even better.”

Adrien shifts again so he can pull her against him. “I already liked you even before I knew you were Ladybug.”

“Me as Marinette or Lady–?”

“As Marinette,” he cuts in. “I probably didn’t know what my feelings were at first but honestly, you being my friend was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

“Heh, I remember how freaked out I was when I overheard you call me a good friend back in collége. I was such a lovestruck teenager.”

“You sure were and I was too oblivious to see it. But hey, it worked out in the end, didn’t it?” Adrien places a light kiss on her nose. “Partners as heroes, and now partners forever.”

“When you put it that way, it’s like I’m stuck with you for the rest of my life.” Marinette smirks.

“Is that a bad thing?”

She shrugs, before leaning up to press her lips against his. “Definitely not.”

“So, um, just to finalize my answer, no. I most likely won’t find someone else if you die first. Of course, you never know what might happen.”

Marinette presses into him. “I just don’t want you to be lonely if I’m gone, you know?”

“Is that why you asked if I’d...romance another woman?”

She nods again.

“Oh, my lady,” Adrien coos, pressing his lips heavily on her head. “You know? I’m always so thankful that I found you.”

“Why?” Marinette lets out a deep breath before sinking further into the pillow. 

Adrien chuckles one last time before he too succumbs to the beckoning slumber.

“I really did marry my best friend.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, honestly I mean it was just quick but after watching _Our Souls at Night_ , I started thinking about that sort of thing, how couples would have to deal with death of their spouses eventually. And I was also reminded of the countless times I've heard my own parents ask me if we'd be ok with them marrying someone else in case the other died. Answers would always vary.
> 
> Thus, this came about...me trying to portray a moment that's both very sobering and encouraging (u w u


	19. The Morning After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally planned to be part of the next chapter of Entwined (see here -->http://archiveofourown.org/works/11705775/chapters/28188630)
> 
> But then, I realized that after this bit, nothing else was working with the rest of the chapter and I finally decided (after three attempted versions of it) to scrap the whole thing and move on. So this is basically what was left of it, the only part I really wanted to keep because it was funny and cute.
> 
> Fair warning though, it is slightly NSFW due to...body parts. Nothing explicit, so it doesn't really warrant a change in rating but I'm just telling you guys. Also, I was inspired by kryallaorchid due to a little crack drabble she wrote a few months ago.

As sunrise begins to slip in through the curtains, Emma trots to the closed bedroom door and scratches at the wood. Inside, Marinette groans, digging her face into the pillow as she tucks herself further under the duvet. A few seconds later, the cat begins to meows loudly from the other side, causing her to flinch and mutter a curse. She turns to her side, eyes stubbornly squinted shut as she brings a hand to poke at her husband’s side.

“Adrien,” she whispers, voice cracking from her dry throat. “Adrieeeen…”

When her husband doesn’t answer, she raises her knee to kick him lightly on the side. But she misses by just an inch above his leg, and ends up hitting something else protruding up into the sheets. The reaction is immediate.

“Mariiiiiii, what?” Adrien lifts an arm to cover his face but doesn’t get up or look at her.

“The cat, Adrien.” she mutters. “It’s your turn to feed Emma.”

“Can’t Plagg and Tikki do it? They’re probably up by now.”

She slides her leg up against him there once more, eliciting a moan of protest.

“Ack. Could you please stop that?” he drawls. 

“Not until you get up,” she retorts, opening one eye to see Adrien frowning at her with a clenched jaw.

“What?” she quirks an eyebrow at him. Emma stops meowing. “Oh, finally,” she sighs.

“I can’t believe you were using my body against me. I feel hurt and manipulated,” Adrien dramatically moans with a roll of his eyes.

“Well you know what, maybe the faster you’d deal with the cat, the faster we’d deal with  _ that _ .” She mockingly points at the blanket where a tent has formed.

Adrien shifts, propping himself up on his arms. He looks down at her smugly. “Don’t tempt me, woman.”

“I’m not tempting anything,” she says innocently but returns the smirk, sliding her toes against his legs. Until Emma begins her incessant meowing once again.

"Urgh, fine..."  With a sigh, Adrien whirls around, standing up from the bed to drag himself to the door, inadvertently giving Marinette a full show of his rear cheeks.

“Um..Adrien you’re...”

He ignores her and steps out of the room. 

As Marinette expects (with some amusement), Plagg screeches from the alcove. 

“ _ PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON, KID!!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There ya go. Married life shenanigans right there.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this!  
> Come visit me or say hi on my Tumblr here => https://qookyquiche.tumblr.com/


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